Marcus UdokangProject Manager| Aivaz ConsultingCalgary, Alberta, Canada
Do you use dashboards to keep stakeholders and resources up-to-date with project status? Or is there a particular software that you use? Do you prefer just using email, or do you prefer one-on-one meetings, and a good conversation? What's your preferred method of keeping stakeholders up-to-date? Saving Changes...
Marcus UdokangProject Manager| Aivaz ConsultingCalgary, Alberta, Canada
Certainly appreciate these valuable response. They encompass a lot of ground and are very thorough.
Marcus Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Agree with Nyuyen.
A stakeholder engagement plan together with the communication plan will do the job.
One aspect is to make life easy for the project (e.g. by trying to use one tool like a dashboard), the other is that you need to understand and reflect the communication needs of each stakeholder, if you want to influence them. Empathy is a part of it and understanding what their needs are to be able to listen to you.
Even if 1on1 with sponsors and other key people are valuable, there is the need to have formal communications, just to establish an organizational track of progress and decisions and changes. Saving Changes...
Like so many things in PM, it depends on many factors.
1) The number of stakeholders - once you reach a high number of stakeholders newsletters and mass emails become more important as well as possibly using multiple means of the same message due to communication differences
2) I do prefer having a sharepoint site for a project of any size that has internal stakeholders - it makes it easier to post all updates in one place.
3) Email / newsletter / web - don't replace meetings and f2f (or lately virtual communication) so it's vital to still include updates in meetings in some way
4) Senior execs almost always prefer powerpoint. I'm not sure why but it's a preference. Saving Changes...
As we climb up the organizational hierarchy, the quality of information required increases and frequency with which the data in required decreases. Eg: Operational employees need the their performance data Managerial cadre needs Information regarding their performance and the senior management needs Intelligence. So, the structure of the data changes with the hierarchy. To summarize, I'd say, strong visualized intelligence for the senior management. For the remaining levels, things could be mutually decided.
Again, media whether in person or online, depends as per stakeholder's preference. Thanks Saving Changes...
Mark PaleschPresident| Palesch Consulting Group IncCa, United States
As part of developing my stakeholder management plan, and subsequently my communications Management plan, I interview the stakeholders to determine the "what, how, frequency, and method information should be cascaded and presented. For Executive level leadership, I generally use a dashboard format (1-2 pages max) and its presented in a quarterly meeting. In my experience, Steering committee stakeholders seem to want a little more "meat" and information given to them, and rightly so, as they provide greater support and are generally more active and closer to the project, and these meetings are more frequent (monthly) Saving Changes...
Marcus UdokangProject Manager| Aivaz ConsultingCalgary, Alberta, Canada
It is wholly apparent that stakeholder management and the method we use to communicate with stakeholders is of paramount interest for project managers. Managing stakeholders closely, keeping them satisfied, keeping them informed, or even monitoring them is essential to the success of any project. I most certainly appreciate all the valuable feedback and responses put forward on this post. It is not only indispensable, but vital to manoeuvring successfully through the ebbs and flows of any project. Saving Changes...
