Stakeholders Of A Project

By Author: johnsmith
Total Articles: 8
Comment this article

Who are the stakeholders of a Project? A stakeholder has some involvement, interest, or is concerned about the project. When a project begins, the stakeholders of the project have to be identified. The obvious stakeholders of the project are the customers, the company doing the project, the project team members, and suppliers. But there are also some stakeholders who are not very visible. For example, the government may be a stakeholder in a project.

The stakeholders are usually listed in the Project Charter. The Project Charter is a document that recognizes that a project exists and gives authority to the project manager to allocate resources to the project.

The Procurement Documents help in identifying the suppliers of a project. If a project needs a constant supply of raw materials or finished goods, then the supplier is a very important stakeholder of the project. A project manager who has done the PMP Prep will be able to create a project charter and evaluate a procurement document.
After identifying the stakeholders a document called the Stakeholder Register is created. This Stakeholder Register ...
... lists the names of the stakeholders, the departments they belong to, their designation, and contact information. The influence and importance of each stakeholder are also mentioned. The stakeholder is also classified as internal or external, neutral or supporter and more.

For example, let us list the stakeholders of a software project. The stakeholders are the project manager, team leader, software developers, testing team members, technical writers, graphic and animation designers, customers, and the company doing the project.
After knowing the stakeholders in the team, we should know if all the team members have similar interests or conflicting interests. For example, a developer may declare that he/she has completed all the project requirements. But a tester may find out and point out that certain features have not been completed. But if the developer refuses to agree or oblige then the tester and developer seem to have conflicting interests in the project. The PMP Exam Prep Course will help to identify stakeholders.

Stakeholders need to be satisfied and constantly informed about project status. The amount of information and attention a stakeholder receives depends upon his/her power or authority, influence, interest, and impact on the project. For example, transactions regarding project budget need not be informed to a project team member. However, a project manager must be aware of the budget estimations and new quotes for the project. This is because the project manager has more authority/ power over the project than a team member. Moreover, a team member may not be interested in knowing the financial transactions of the project.

The engagement of the stakeholder is very important for the success of a project. The amount of engagement expected from each of the stakeholder is determined at the start of the project by holding meetings. If there is a gap between the expected engagement and planned engagement levels that gap has to be filled. For example, a stakeholder may be aware of the project and the potential impacts but maybe resistant to change. In such a scenario, the stakeholder can be tuned to become more supportive or to even lead the change. Identifying and managing stakeholder is an important component of every project. You have to build trust, resolve conflicts, and listen effectively to engage and manage stakeholders. The PMP Exam Prep will help you in stakeholder management.