Stakeholder Expectations

 

In my last article, we explored the identification and mapping of stakeholders. Those tasks are the first steps of the expectation management process. The reason that we are covering this area in such detail is that if expectations are not actively managed during the course of a project, then the risks for partial or total project failure increase. Let me stress: Project management is about meeting expectations! With that in mind, this article will continue to explore the theme and lay the groundwork for the active management of stakeholder expectations.

Is An Expectation A Requirement?
An expectation is a one-way perspective that a customer, vendor, project team member or anyone may have. The subtlety is that expectations must be discovered and documented as a formal requirement. Just finding out what the expectations are is a challenge, for a variety of reasons: political concerns, budgets, diversion of resources, lack of time, lack of organization, lack of strategic focus, silo thinking and so on.

However, once expectations are identified, the difficulty lies in getting the formal requirement definitions to match the desires so that appropriate decisions can be made.

Not One Way!
Expectations can run in many directions. Any stakeholder can have an expectation. The originating person may be the sponsor, production line worker, project team member, etc. When …

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