Achieving Unified Stakeholder Management

Kenneth has 14 years of healthcare experience in government and private industry. Over eight years of experience managing healthcare IT projects, operations, contracts, and personnel. His work experience includes project management, contracts and procurements, data analysis, claims adjudication, business writing, and business process modeling. Kenneth was certified in 2006 as a Project Management Professional.

  Communications Management   Knowledge Management   Lessons Learned   Stakeholder Management  

The stakeholders of a project may be formally recognized, such as client executives or managers that are responsible for delivering the project. Or they may be more informal positions such as customers who will use the new product--or even the public at large that will benefit from the results of the project.

Whoever the stakeholders are, the project or program manager should ensure that there is a unified method of communicating with and relating to them. If the message to the stakeholders is fragmented, support for the project could start to disappear--and if the stakeholders are pulled in different directions, then the project and the project team will suffer from the resulting confusion. Putting forward a unified front will help the project as well as the stakeholders.

One Voice
The first priority is to make sure that there is one voice speaking to the stakeholders on project issues and updates. This does not necessarily mean that only one person is allowed to talk, but it does mean that any communication needs to be coordinated by the project manager or the designated person instead of being handled in a fragmented way by different people on the project. This might in fact mean that only one person is allowed to speak, or it might mean that all communications are reviewed and approved by one person or small team before being delivered.

However the project …

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