Analyzing Stakeholders

The various stakeholders in your project—from the sponsor to each individual internal team member—all view it from very different perspectives. Analysis of each stakeholder’s attitude toward your project, and their degree of influence within it, can be a useful part of the process by which a team is put together and managed.

Identifying key players

All projects have multiple stakeholders. Some will be more important than others, either because of their involvement in delivering elements of the work, or because they are influential in the environment where the work is being produced or will be deployed.

Stakeholder analysis allows you to identify the most important people in your project and decide where to invest time and resources. It should lead to a communication plan aimed initially at canvassing opinion and then providing the right people with timely information throughout the project’s lifecycle.

Performing the analysis

Consider every stakeholder in your project in relation to two scales—influence and attitude. Rate each person or group according to their influence within the project, and whether they can be influenced by you as the project manager. Next, rate them on their attitude toward the project. Use the matrix on the facing page to mark the desired and actual position of stakeholders: draw a circle on the grid where you want them to be and a cross where they currently are. Where circles and crosses are co-located consider what you need to do to maintain their position; where they are separate consider what you need to do to improve the situation.

Influencing stakeholders

As a general rule, you are unlikely to be able to move strongly negative stakeholders to the positive side, but it may be possible to neutralize their opposition. Where there is opposition from an especially powerful stakeholder or group of stakeholders, steps may have to be taken to reduce their influence or the project may have to be abandoned.

Your relationship with the sponsor, and his or her position in your organization, may be very helpful. You need to have the confidence to address senior or challenging stakeholders directly, but also the wisdom to know when this may be counterproductive and a situation is better addressed by involving the sponsor.