Abstract
Apparently, managing Stakeholders is not such a big problem for the project manager, but PMI believes otherwise, and there are a number of reasons - Project Managers do not always pay enough attention to the requirements and expectations of Stakeholders. Of course, we are not talking about the customer of the project, and not even about the users of the Deliverables of the Project, but about all people who have any interest in or influence on the Project.
PMI has allocated the management of Stakeholders to a separate field of knowledge since the fifth version of PMBoK, previously its individual parts were part of the field of knowledge of Communications. The area of knowledge under consideration is quite scarce, because it only expands the concept of management by Stakeholders, which already existed previously. Let’s consider the processes that make it up:
- 12.1 Identify Stakeholders
- 12.2 Plan Stakeholders Management
- 12.3 Manage Stakeholder Engagement
- 12.4 Control Stakeholder Engagement
12.1 Identify Stakeholders
This process can be seen, if not as the most important, as extremely important at least. To a large extent, the quality and completeness of the definition of Stakeholders of the Project will depend on the quality of the Collect Requirements, because the omission from sight of one or more Stakeholders, can be expressed in the lack of several requirements for the project that «steam» will lead to an increase in the cost of the project during its execution.
Before going deeper into the definition of Stakeholders, it is necessary to understand who they will be. Stakeholders of a Project is any natural or legal persons who, in one way or another, are associated with the project and can have a positive or negative influence on it. It is not necessary to be afraid that the Stakeholders can be a very large number, but it is necessary to be afraid of «sudden» appearance of uncounted Stakeholders with new Requirements, which will have a critical impact on project Execution. Of course, the words «must be taken into account anyone who is somehow connected with the project» should not be taken as a guide to action. For example, when building a house, motorists who will drive past the construction house will also be Stakeholders (their requirement may be, for example, the accessibility of the carriageway at any time), but list each motorist exactly makes no sense. So we can combine them into a group of «motorists» and consider them as one Stakeholder.
Remember that it is desirable to identify each Stakeholders, but the time of their identification is also extremely important. It is best to do this in the early stages of the project, in the group of processes called Initiation. Key Stakeholders must be identified before Collect Requirements and Define Scope.
Let’s sum up the transient result and list all actions that the Project Manager is obliged to perform throughout the whole Project:
- Identification of all Stakeholders of the Project. Sooner or later, lost from sight of the Stakeholders, will «pop up» and possibly bring a list of additional Requirements to the Project, which may require recycling of work already done, and this will require additional costs. Each Stakeholder should be added to the Stakeholders Register, which, by the way, is one of the outputs of the process under consideration.
- Determination of all Requirements of the Stakeholders. All Requirements should be identified regardless of their origin. Requirement definition is the area of responsibility of the Collect Requirements process. Requirements include not only technical requirements for the project product, but also Communication Requirements (how to communicate, on what questions, how often, etc.), management style requirements for the project, reporting format, etc.
- Definition of all Expectations of Stakeholders. In the example with the house, the expectations on the part of the neighbor can be attributed to, for example, “I hope that you do not plan to make noisy work on the weekend.” Expectations are not Requirements and their compliance is not mandatory, but their compliance entails a lot of advantages, in particular the more favorable relationship with Stakeholders.
- Determination of Interest in the Project. In addition to Requirements and Expectations, which are often negative, Stakeholders can assist if there is some personal interest in the Project. For example, when building a house, the neighbor may be interested in running a gas pipeline that he currently does not have, and with your participation, the operation will cost him much less. Then, possible joint implementation of the gas pipeline, reducing the cost of the Project, is a positive Risk of the Project.
- Determining the degree of Influence. It is very important to focus on specific stakeholders. It is necessary to determine the degree of Influence of each Stakeholder and note this in the Stakeholders Register.
- Communication conditions. Planning of communications with Stakeholders (especially the key ones) is critical for project Execution.
- Implementing communications. To be implemented throughout the Project and includes, among other things, the identification of new Requirements, reporting, Problem Solving etc.
Requirements management. In addition to the simple enumeration, it is also necessary to monitor compliance with certain Requirements throughout the Project. - Management of Influence and Interest. As well as the management of Requirements, should be carried out throughout the Project.
So, with the term itself we have worked out, let’s now go back to the process.
Stakeholders Register
Identify Stakeholders can be done in different ways - by a simple survey, in dialogue with the management, by project analysis, etc. How you will identify them depends only on your preferences. In parallel with the identification, it is necessary to carry out an evaluation of their Interest, degree of Influence and Requirements for communications. All the information gathered must be entered in the Stakeholders Register, which may have, for example:
This document can be distributed freely within the Project.
12.2 Plan Stakeholders Management
Like other areas of knowledge, the management of Stakeholders requires control and coordination.
Influence/Interest Matrix
Very useful tool that helps to build a strategy of interaction with Stakeholders. Can be distributed only to trusted persons or should not be distributed at all. Looks as follows:
Stakeholder Management Strategy
The principle is that we should use and multiply everything that can be useful to the Project, as well as smooth out and reduce all negative effects that the Stakeholders may have on the Project. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? But the implementation of this principle often causes problems.
It is desirable to write a document describing the principles of interaction with Stakeholders. It is enough to list some characteristics of the Stakeholders, character traits, and possible positive and negative factors Influence on the Project. Of course, it is strictly a closed document and should not be distributed even within the Project Team. The content may be approximately as follows:
12.3 Manage Stakeholder Engagement
The task of this process is to track the involvement of Stakeholders and predict the future. What are the Stakeholder Expectations? This is the degree of his involvement in the Project, which is composed of a number of factors - his level of interest in the Project, his expectations from the Project and his activity in the Project. You must influence engagement (and therefore each of the characteristics) by any means, naturally changing it in a positive way.
Expectations
This assumption of the Stakeholder about a possible future event, of course, in most cases, his Expectations are exclusively positive with respect to himself. The List of Expectations had to be compiled in the process of Plan Stakeholders Management, when we «looked» into the future and developed a strategy on how to manage the assumptions of Stakeholders about the future.
For example, our neighbor expects that when performing the work, you will not make noise on weekends. One of the tasks of this process will be to control work with respect to noise level. The tasks of the process will also include, for example, the identification of new emerging Expectations of various Stakeholders.
Interest
An individual’s Interest can be manifested in any form but is usually based on expectations Expectations of positive outcomes. There may not be Interest in the Project, but the task of the Project Manager is to establish a relationship that is conducive to the Project with such Stakeholders and involve them in the Project. Of course, in theory it sounds beautiful, but in practice this is not always possible.
Activity
Determined by as much participation of the Stakeholder in the Project, as they take at least some action for (or against) the Project. For example, when interacting with the customer, the Project Manager should encourage him or her to interact in Collect Requirements; if he or she is a user of the project’s Deliverables, then it is necessary to further involve him in identifying problems and gathering Requirements etc.
Process outcomes
The result of the process should be Change Requests. If you go deeper into typing Change Requests, then this process in a greater mass should generate Corrective or Preventive changes. They are the main output of the process. In addition, the outputs will be updates of various Project Documents and, as a consequence of Change Requests, changes in different Project Management Plans.
12.4 Control Stakeholder Engagement
This process is intended to control the Engagement in the Project of Stakeholders, specified in the process of Manage Stakeholder Engagement. For this, it is recommended to hold meetings with them, provide reports, and generally regularly inform them about the status of the Project.