Project Office

You may have heard the phrase "Project Management is all about people". If you are a Project Manager or part of a project team you will be reliant on people. You will need your team to work together, complete tasks on time and to present a positive message about your project.

If you Google '10 reasons projects fail' you will find many different opinions on project failure, but all of lists will contain something about stakeholders, communication, people or teams. To dramatically improve your chances of project success follow this four step process.

Step 1 - identify your stakeholders

A Stakeholder is anybody who is affected by your project in any way. Write a list of everyone you can think of who will be affected. Your list should include:

• Those who will feel positive and negative impacts
• Internal staff
• Partners/suppliers
• The public
• Media
• Regulatory authorities
• Customers

Step 2 - Analyse your stakeholders

Draw a square on a piece of flipchart paper and split it into four boxes. Label the left side Influence and the bottom of the square Interest. Label the bottom left box - 'Least important'. Label the bottom right box - 'Show consideration'. Label the top left box - 'Meet their needs' and finally label the top right box - 'Key player'.

Review your list for each stakeholder or group and decide how much interest they have in your project and how much influence they could have on your project. Using post-its or a marker pen put them into the appropriate box on your interest and influence matrix. You may have guessed that you will want to treat the stakeholders that have a high interest and influence on your project differently from those that are not influential and not interested.

Step 3 - Write a stakeholder engagement plan

Now that you have completed the identification and analysis stages it is time to develop your stakeholder engagement strategy.

Identify 'win/win' strategies

Document the results of your Stakeholder Analysis in a table which lists each stakeholder or group and their place on the interest/influence matrix. Add two columns and use one to describe their goals and the other to identify win/win strategies for engaging with them.

Develop the communication and reporting plan

Using the information you have gathered in the previous steps write a communication and reporting plan that documents: the information requirements, frequency of communication, communication provider and channel of communication for each stakeholder. Make use of your existing reporting structure to manage and communicate with your key stakeholders and don't forget to make use of technology e.g. webinars, video conferencing, internet, intranet.

Step 4 - Engage with your stakeholders!

You have made it to the last step! Now you just need to pull your work together to form your stakeholder engagement plan. This should contain the following sections:

• Purpose of the document
• Project background
• Stakeholder impact/influence matrix
• Win/win strategies
• Communication and reporting plan

Make sure that everyone who is involved in delivering the plan has read and approved it and understands the actions that they need to take.

Summary

Now you know who your stakeholders are, you have identified the key players and you have a plan for engaging with them. By taking these steps you are already way ahead and your project has a much greater chance of success!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/project-management-articles/avoid-project-failure-manage-your-stakeholders-5643471.html

At Stakeholdermap.com our mission is to advise businesses on the best way to manage their stakeholders, to suggest some techniques and to provide a toolkit of effective templates. Read our free 4 step guide to Stakeholder Management