How do you deal with stakeholders who are reluctant to periodically communicate on the requirements and status of the project and with clients who do not have a full picture of the project requirements (i.e. they do not know what they want but they have a deadline)? Saving Changes...
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Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Project stakeholder analysis is a must. After performing this activity you will know how to interact with your project stakeholders. About requirements, stakeholders ever know what they want but sometimes they do not know how to express it. That is because inside the PMI the name to take stakeholder needs is "elicitation". It is a matter of business analysis, not project management. The project manager takes all the needs that the business analyst has especified has requirements to define all related to the project. The technique my team and myself has been used to take stakeholders needs and help them to articulate those needs is a selling method named "Solution Seliing" or SPIN selling. Saving Changes...
Exactly what Sergio said. What we do is we develop solutions and then optimize them and provide them the best one. Upon reasoning, we explain as to why we are offering a certain solution and how we came to this. I consider such a situation as full of opportunities where one can give complete solutions. It's like defining the requirements yourself and explaining it to your client. Saving Changes...
Bala S DuvvuriProject Manager| ShellBangalore, Karnataka, India
There are many ways mentioned in PMBOK to collect the requirements.
After doing careful stakeholder analysis you can choose different requirements gathering techniques like observations,questionnaire and survey, benchmarking,document analysis etc. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Well, this is the purely the job of the PM. I just had my PMP exam today and what a coincidence, I got a question very similar to this:
1- You have to identify requirements while engaging all stakeholders.
2- You have to do stakeholder assessment and put priorities depending on the level of engagement of each.
3- You have to enhance the communication plan and in your case, maybe put more effort on it. Saving Changes...
PANKAJ KUMAR JOSHIGeneral Manager| Transrail Lighting LimitedNainital, Uttrakhand, India
I agree with the above gentlemen. Stakeholder identification, requirement analysis with them and communication plan to engage them properly is necessary to avoid such situations.
Regarding reluctance of particular stakeholder, It depends upon their necessity of communication. Sometimes you are not getting support from negative stakeholders or some stakeholder are lazy to send reports. It is also possible that you have made a performance reporting system which is taking their productive time and they are reluctant due to it.
You must discuss with them personally to resolve these issues. Saving Changes...
To add to the above, when it comes to reluctant stakeholders, some of the things I do are:
- Make your reporting expectations clear at the beginning of the project. Get their commitment
- Every time you ask a question give them the deadline that their input is required. If necessary you can explain why it is important to receive their input by a specific time
- Find ways to make reporting easy for them. e.g., send them tables to fill, send them reminder, use technology to collect updates
- As the last method escalate if you are not receiving what you were promised. You don't want to jeopardize your project by waiting for stakeholders to decide when they like to communicate Saving Changes...
PANKAJ KUMAR JOSHIGeneral Manager| Transrail Lighting LimitedNainital, Uttrakhand, India
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