In common practice at least 70% of project manager time is dedicated to communication, and some sources suggest a higher percentage close to 90% (Bourne, 2009). Communication (from the Latin cum = with, and munire = bind, build, and always from the Latin communico = to share, to participate) is sharing something with someone, and stakeholders are precisely those with whom such sharing should be implemented. It is therefore evident that stakeholder management is strictly linked with communication. And vice versa, communication is sharing information to and from stakeholders.
The topic is: how can the project manager establish a contact point between this two area? I think that the stakeholder shape tool can help project managers in correctly and clearly manage his/her stakeholders, mapping them in regard to the right communication approach. Saving Changes...
Damiano I do agree with you Communication has be to very open but it is more than that , has to be assertive, having said that everybody has one of 4 types of communication style which can be:: action, sensitive, intuitive and process and you have to adapt your style of communication to the customer style.. Saving Changes...
Damiano I do agree with you Communication has be to very open but it is more than that , has to be assertive, having said that everybody has one of 4 types of communication style which can be:: action, sensitive, intuitive and process and you have to adapt your style of communication to the customer style.. Saving Changes...
arlene trimbleAssistant IT Director| Local GovernmentAlamo, Ca, United States
A good project manager is a good communicator as the project management field is essentially people management aka stakeholder management.
PMs need to be able to manage stakeholder expectations and ensure that their business needs are identified and included on the backlog for prioritization by the business owner. Using Big Visible Boards would help in communicating the progress of the project to your stakeholders. Saving Changes...
I agree with you all. Communication is a essential part of project management. So it must be linked very closely to Stakeholder Management.
A stakeholder analysis provides many useful information to a communication plan. Who are the key stakeholders, what are their position and influence level in the project, and what is the best way to keep them informed/engaged.
On the other hand, communication tools are very efficient for the stakeholder management, as Nelson and Arlene pointed.
It is important to consider as stakeholder everyone who might influence the project directly or indirectly, who can impact the project, who might be impacted by the project. Don't forget governamental and non-governamental organisations!
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Michael AdamsSolutions Architect| LANLLos Alamos, Nm, United States
I think that a stakeholder analysis is best used as an input to a communication plan. Part of the analysis should include a consideration of what sorts of information will this or that stakeholder want, and another important consideration is how does this or that stakeholder want to receive information.
Each communication plan should be different and should be based on the particular stakeholders involved, including project team members. Saving Changes...
Hi Michael, I totally agree with you. I'm convinced that stakeholders analysis must be an input for the communication plan and that is how the stakeholdershape methodology works.
There is a Matrix risks/stakeholders to calculate the impact of each stakeholder and then two attributes: relationship and Agreement. Based on this values the methodology map each staekholder in a graph to manage the project communication plan. Saving Changes...
While I agree that the two knowledge areas are strongly connected and stakeholder management used to be part of communication management till the last edition (4th Ed) of PMBOK Guide, but the rising awareness about stakeholder management has shown that stakeholder management is the first and foremost and all communications are designed in accordance with the stakeholder number, needs and expectations. We need to first identify the stakeholders, ascertain their number, analyse them to see who is more important than other and device a stakeholder management strategy. Then we need to establish requirements, list activities, collect risk and quality requirements. Only when we have all stakeholder needs documented, we can start designing a communication mechanism. I understand communication cannot happen without stakeholders and stakeholder analysis is useless if there is no communication, that's why they are working hand in hand and cannot be separated. The contact point, in my view, is stakeholder needs and expectations, around which these two knowledge areas would be weaved. Saving Changes...
PARAG KANDEKARVP Operations| SoftNice IncAllentown, Pa, United States
In Strategic Engagement Management - we use stakeholder analysis to categorize the stakeholders in 1. Users 2. Quality/Technical Decision Maker 3. Finance Decision Maker 4. Friend. Here everyone plays different role based on their interest level. End users are more concern on the outcome out of the engagement and don't care about the Technical/Quality and Finance factor. Where as Technical/Quality and Fiance Decision maker are more concern on their relevant factors. Based on this analysis, when we work with specific stakeholder we speak in their language to ensure it is communicated and understood completely. For e.g for the Finance Decision Maker stakeholder if you build business case based on technical advantages, he would not be contributing much. But if you speak with ROI,Pay back period terms then he would be more comfortable to communicate and close on decisions.
Stakeholder analysis ensure we plan communication strategy, approach, content to ensure required outcome from the communication.
This helps in working collaboratively towards common goal. This shows our leadership skill where each stakeholder is comfortable to communicate with us as we are communicating in their language. Saving Changes...
