Identifying project stakeholders Project success is directly linked to a project managers ability to effectively identify and manage stakeholders

expectations. Who is Stakeholder? As Per PMBOK (2008 p. 23), stakeholders are persons or organizations that are involved in the project and may affect a project positively or negatively. Stakeholders may also exert influence over the project, its deliverables, and the project team members The Work of the Project and the final product may have different stakeholders and may effect the same stakeholder differently e.g. as a road user you might be inconvenienced during construction but benefit less traffic congestion once complete Wysocki,(2009 PP 39-40) explains how to identify the stakeholders. Ideally for each of these key contributors, you will understand: The stake the stakeholder has in the project. What the project needs from the stakeholder. What the stakeholder expects or requires from the project. From this basis you are in a good position to negotiate effectively In Large projects I handle, I create a stakeholder register, once the project proposal is approved, I sit with the Project Team and take each task from WBS and come up with a list of who would be stakeholder in each task. This usually enables us to come up with a detailed list of stakeholders, some with minimum impact and some with maximum impact. The Project team then sieves through and comes up with a more compact list. Once the list is complete we come up with an information matrix to now determine who would need what information. For most a monthly project progress report is usually satisfactory. We also keep on updating the Stakeholder register throughout the project life cycle as sometimes stakeholders change midway through the project. A good Example is we never considered a resident association as a stakeholder in a well field design because it was more than 70kms away from the project but as soon as we submitted our designs to the authorities, the resident association raised quite a few objections. These were mainly due to lack of correct information about our Project.

After this case, we actually used to put a progress report 0ne page advertisement in the dailies and we finished the project without a single objection. Conclusion: It is very important to provide information to all concerned. Reference: Wysocki, R. K. (2009) Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, PMBOK (2008) -A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge 4ed, Project Management Institute, 14 Campus Blvd., Newtown Square, PA 19073-3299 USA