What is Stakeholder and stakeholder management?

A stakeholder is an individual, group, or organization that may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project

Stakeholders are any people, organizations, or departments whose interests may be positively or negatively impacted by the project.

What is Project Stakeholder management

Managing the stakeholders with the help of different process groups and methods is called stakeholder management. It includes identifying the stakeholders, analysing their expectations and what will be their impact on the project, developing the starategy about  effective engagement in project decisions.   

Considering the significant levels of knowledge, resources, or investment they offer, the success of your project will heavily rely on the relationships you develop with your stakeholders. Therefore, it’s essential to have a well-defined process to identify stakeholders, understand their requirements, and effectively manage their expectations.

The stakeholders include external and internal stakeholders.

The stakeholder management is one of the key topic in the project management process. The stakeholder involvement will vary based on the size of the project for example executing 1million USD project have very less stakeholder and easy to manage the project but executing lasrge size project where stakeholder range is from 100 to 1000 stakeholders shall need proper analysiz to have their ful engagement and it will have significant impact on the success of the project.

In this scenario the key to make all stakeholders  engaged, close coordination, arrange the weekly or biweekly meetings, arrange the team building activities and define their role and responsibilities. The example of stakeholders which are internal and external stakelholders the example are

Internal stakeholders

Project Management team

Design/Engineering Department

Procurement/Supply chain

HR/Resource Manager

Operation and Maintenance \department

Construction Team  etc.

External stakeholders:

Customers/Proponent

End users,

Contractors

Government organizations

Suppliers/vendors

Third parties

Those stakeholders outside of the organization.

When we need Stakeholders involvement or engagement

Once the project has been initiated and the scope is finalized, during developing of the project charter, Project Manager need to identify and finalize the  key stakeholders need to finalized and below are the basic considerations of stakeholders.

Identify the stakeholders (Internal and external)

Define their decision-making power

Define their role and responsibilities

Level of engagement

Identify their requirements

Their expectations

Their engagement till project closeout

What are the Stakeholder Management Processes

Identify the stakeholders:

In stakeholder management, the first step is to identify the stakeholders as early as possible and it will be updated regularly. The key benefits of this process is to enable the project team to identify the stkeholdrsat make appropriate focus of engagement of eacj stakeholders. The register will be update or modify throughout  the project life cycle (if needed).

There are various methods and tools will be to identify the stakeholder such as meeetings, collecting the requiremsnts from key stakeholders, brainstorming, stakeholder analysis, stakeholder  mapping and we need to check from similar prperviosu project information.

The document used to maintain the identified stakeholder is the Stakeholder Register  

Stakeholder Register Sample

Plan stakeholder engagement:  

After developing the stakeholder register, we need to  

Manage stakeholder engagement

Manage Stakeholder Engagement is the process of communicating and working with stakeholders to meet their needs and expectations, address issues, and foster appropriate stakeholder involvement. The key benefit of this process is that it allows the project manager to increase support and minimize resistance from stakeholders. This process is performed throughout the project. The inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs of the process are depicted in Figure 13-7. Figure 13-8 depicts the data flow diagram for the process.

Manage Stakeholder Engagement involves activities such as:

Engaging stakeholders at appropriate project stages to obtain, confirm, or maintain their continued commitment to the success of the project;

Managing stakeholder expectations through negotiation and communication;

Addressing any risks or potential concerns related to stakeholder management and anticipating future issues that may be raised by stakeholders; and

Clarifying and resolving issues that have been identified.

Managing stakeholder engagement helps to ensure that stakeholders clearly understand the project goals, objectives, benefits, and risks for the project, as well as how their contribution will enhance project success

Monitor stakeholder \engagements

Monitor Stakeholder Engagement is the process of monitoring project stakeholder relationships and tailoring strategies for engaging stakeholders through modification of engagement strategies and plans. The key benefit of this process is that it maintains or increases the efficiency and effectiveness of stakeholder engagement activities as the project evolves and its environment changes. This process is performed throughout the project. The inputs, tools and techniques, and outputs of the process are depicted in Figure 13-9. Figure 13-10 depicts the data flow diagram for the process.

Maintaining stakeholder relationships and monitoring stakeholder engagement are ongoing responsibilities of the project manager. Monitoring stakeholder engagement wil1 help you understand stakeholder perceptions of project progress. Titis will allow you to make minor adjustments to ensure continuous stake holder engagement and support. In addition to evaluating stakeholder engagement and improving and refining strategies for engagement, this process also involves reassessing the stakeholder register, updating stakeholder information, adding stakeholders as appropriate, and noting when a particular stakeholder’s involvement is no longer necessary.