Getting to Know the Stakeholders

There are many reasons why you should Identify Stakeholder early in the project life cycle. Most important reason is that, your stakeholders can influence the direction of the project. Based on the information that they share with you or the things that they say to other people, your project is impacted by them.

Stakeholders can be anyone who is directly or indirectly involved in the project. They can be:

• The sponsor
• The customer
• Senior management
• Functional departments
• The public
• The project team
• Alice in customer support team
• The sundry shop 100m from your project site

The bigger your project, the more stakeholders are involved. And you need to figure out how to reach out to them and understand what are their needs. As the PM, you need to find out how your project will impact them during and after it is completed. We need to find out what is the extend of influence each of the stakeholder has and how their opinions or decision will impact the course of our project.

To begin with, when identifying a stakeholder, we need to know his role, department, interests, knowledge level, expectation and influence level. Find out as much as you can about each and everyone of your stakeholders. Also, we need to find out what type of information they require, how they like it to be presented as, how much they want or need to know, etc. Some people likes a lengthy, narrative, very detailed reports. Some prefer graphs and bullet points. Some just need a one-liner.

Next, identify the impact or support that you can get from the stakeholders. Each stakeholder will impact your project differently. Some will be supportive, others nonchalant. Some don’t event want to talk about the project. Check for:

• Power/Interest
• Power/Influence
• Influence/Impact
• Salient model – group by power, urgency, and legitimacy

Then, you need to assess their reactions and responds in differing situations. Observe your stakeholders during meeting or discussions or functions. How do they talk to people? How do they respond to questions? What type of questions that can make them open up to you? What type of questions that make them clam up? Are they a risk taker or a safe player? What is their corporate style? How do they negotiate or get things done? Try to learn as much as you can about your stakeholders, not only from other people who knows them, but also through your personal encounter and observations.

Last but not least, communicate with your stakeholders. When you have found out the frequency of reporting that they prefer, make sure you do it as you have agreed. Tell them what they want to know and always ask their opinion on the progress so far. However, be careful not to allow scope creep. The reason you continuously engage your stakeholder is to gauge the health of your project from their perspective. They will take the opportunity to ask you to include extra features or new functionalities, make no mistake. But use your charm and wisdom as a project manager to manage this. Remember, project managers spend most of their time communicating, so communicate effectively and wisely.