What comes first? Develop Project Charter or Identify Stakeholders?

Without the project charter you don't really know who the stakeholders are. Yes, there is often some semblance of a scope floating around on something that a business uses to continue the conversation in the very beginning of a project's lifecycle but realistically you can't get anyone on the same page without writing down the idea and why (initial business case) it should be done, essentially the draft of a project charter. once you have this draft then you can ask who will be impacted hence the identifying of stakeholders. You should not assign a PM with a blank page in your hand as a portfolio manager or a project sponsor. You need really need something in the works to get the support and momentum that will be needed to birth a project and assign the project manager. Yes, the PM will often be nearby helping in this process and finalizing the Charter but identifying stakeholders is a far reaching activity that requires more definition than a charter may provide. Just my two cents...

Without a well-defined charter you won't know for sure which stakeholders you'll need.

A Project Charter comes first, since is the first natural step to crystalize an idea into a project. When someone composes a charter he or she typically has in mind who the project stakeholders will be. So, one could argue that stakeholder register could, if really necessary, be written first. However, there is little value in doing so, plus there is the risk that some stakeholders might be forgotten given the lack of a clear on paper project scope.

The key point here is: if you are talking about project management then what you must identify is project stakeholders. You are not assigned to a project until the project charter is created and approved then project charter is first, is nothing to do about project stakeholders because there is not project. Here is when a role mostly forgotten has to be taken into account: business analyst. Business analyst performs stakeholders identification before a project exists because business analyst work before a project exists, along the project and when the project is close business analyst continue working to meassure benefits. What project manager must do is taken the stakeholder analysis done by the business analyst and add the project stakehodler analysis to it.