Project Stakeholder Management

This is the third in a series of six articles to discuss Best Practices in Project Stakeholder Management, using the I-C-E cube model:

1. Identify
2. Classify
3. Expectations
4. Influence
5. Communicate
6. Evaluate

3. DETERMINE PROJECT STAKEHOLDER EXPECTATIONS

You need to understand, quantify and document stakeholder’s needs, wants, and expectations in relation to the project, to create requirements that can be managed as part of the Scope management process. Remember that requirements cannot be fully defined at the beginning of the project, due to the concept of Progressive Elaboration (where we understand more about the project as time progresses).

Here are some techniques for uncovering requirements:

• Interviews
• Focus Groups
• Facilitated Workshops
• Questionnaires
• Surveys
• Observation
• Prototypes

Ask the following:

• How do the various stakeholders’ goals for the project differ?
• How will we know if this project is a success?
• What information do they want?
• What is their opinion of you and your team?
• Are their expectations negative or positive?
• What demands will the project put on them and their staff?
• Can they accommodate the project in the required time and with the given budget?

Sometimes it won’t be possible to convert their expectations into requirements. You will then need to influence the stakeholders (discussed in step 4).

Avoid unquantifiable requirements such as “customer satisfaction”, which are subjective and therefore entail a high risk of being successfully completed. Reframing (the ability to see events from another person’s perspective) can be a useful technique for identifying stakeholder expectations, as discussed in the post about negotiating.

This is the second in a series of six articles to discuss Best Practices in Project Stakeholder Management, using the I-C-E cube model:

1. Identify
2. Classify
3. Expectations
4. Influence
5. Communicate
6. Evaluate

2. PROJECT STAKEHOLDER CLASSIFICATION

The list of project stakeholders can be very large, so we need to partition the list in a way that helps us to manage each stakeholder or group. One strategy is to map out all the stakeholders on your project and partition them according to their:

INFLUENCE (“the ability to control or affect the actions, beliefs and attitudes of other people”) and:
INTEREST (“the state of being responsible, affected, involved, concerned, attentive curious”).

After considering all the classifications, you will be able to plot the stakeholders in a grid similar to the example below:

A further dimension can also be added by considering people’s level of support for your project. Assess their motivation, and fit them in to one of these categories:

• Allies
• Supporters
• Neutral
• Reluctant
• Opponents

This exercise can be done using a flipchart and a few coloured pens, or on a spreadsheet.

This is the first in a series of six articles to discuss Best Practices in Project Stakeholder Management, using the I-C-E cube model:

1. Identify
2. Classify
3. Expectations
4. Influence
5. Communicate
6. Evaluate

1. PROJECT STAKEHOLDER IDENTIFICATION

The first step in developing our Project Stakeholder Management strategy is to identify the stakeholders. These are people or organisations that are actively involved in a project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by execution or completion of the project. Overlooking negative stakeholders can increase the likelihood of failure. Whatever list you produce will need to be re-visited during the project lifecycle as new information becomes available and as the project progresses.

In order to start the identification process you’ll need the following inputs:

• Project Charter
• Procurement documents
• Company information
• Lessons learned from previous projects

The output of this exercise will simply be a listing of stakeholders, with no analysis at this stage.
I suggest an initial identification exercise by the Project Manager, followed by exercises with the project team in the form of brainstorming or other group-facilitation methods.

To get you started, see the list of project stakeholders in the ‘downloads’ section.

We work in a discipline called “Project Management”, which seems to imply that it only takes ‘management’ and processes in order to ensure a positive outcome to our projects. However, it seems that every time I go to the bookstore I see yet another book telling us that Project Managers need to be ‘Leaders’.

Whilst I do believe it is possible to learn some tools and techniques that enable Project Managers to employ leadership skills for team building and project stakeholder interaction, I’m not sure that ‘leadership’ can actually be taught. The books and training courses help us to define what leadership is, and the essential differences between leadership and management, but how do we become leaders?

Here’s a resource to help with the definition of leaders and managers that you can use when asked to define the differences.

I feel that Project Managers must be also be able to lead, motivate and inspire others, coupled with a solid understanding of the processes and mechanics of running projects.

One of the eternal questions about leadership is whether it’s better for leaders to be loved (by using soft-powers based on persuasion and influence) or feared (using coercion and force). I certainly use both hard and soft skills with my kids, so was interested to see a new book that discusses the relationship between power and leadership:

The Powers to Lead, by Joseph S. Nye, Oxford University Press.

The author concludes that a combination of hard and soft power is the best approach to leadership - a combination he calls ’smart power’. Apparently, different sorts of leaders are required in different circumstances, and leaders who succeed in one particular environment might struggle in another.

There are no clear answers to the questions about leadership and management but I’m glad to see that there are now many resources available to help us. Lessons learned for project stakeholder management:

1. Learn both management and leadership skills.
2. Balance the use of soft leadership using persuasion and influence, with the hard skills of coercion and force.
   
3. Be aware that you will need to change your approach based on the circumstances.