Effective Stakeholder Management Using Core Teams

Stakeholder management, as noted in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), is critical to the success or failure of a project. In many organizations the training for project managers focuses more often on the tactical aspects of the project process: planning, execution, and monitoring and controlling. A consistent, structured approach to stakeholder management will significantly increase the probability of project success by reducing and eliminating non-technical barriers and obstacles. The core team is an effective tool for achieving this goal.

What Could Go Wrong?

Project XYZ has been sponsored and planned by the business leaders of a financial services firm. The business requirements have been written and base lined, and the project team has created detailed designs, estimates, and schedules. At the same time, the project manager has developed a stakeholder management plan that identifies the major stakeholders throughout the business, as well as plans for communicating the project status to those stakeholders. Each week, the leaders of the major functional groups in the business will be e-mailed a summarized status update. In addition, they  will receive a link to the most recent detailed project status report, where they will find updates on the project components in development, the performance of the project …