Author: Premal Desai
Introduction
Stakeholders Management plays important role in Project Management and Project Manager should understand importance of it for successful execution of the project. Project managers must ensure that they engage the stakeholders throughout the project life cycle. [IPECC] Involving stakeholders in the project is very difficult and challenging task which can be made easy with usage of a Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix and related tools and techniques and processes.
Stakeholders are people who will be affected by your project at any point in its life cycle, and their input can directly impact the outcome. It’s essential to practice good stakeholder management and continuously communicate to collaborate on the project.
What is the Meaning of Stakeholders
Stakeholders are those with an interest in your project’s outcome. Stakeholders’ interest is represented by way of a project team, project managers, executives, project sponsors, customers, and users and even suppliers. These entities is represented in PRINCE2 as ‘Project Board’, but other stakeholders may also need to be engaged by the project and may be inducted in the Project Board on case to case basis/as per need. [Tailoring PRINCE2 to suit business environment]
How do you engage/connect with Stakeholders
Project managers keep records and track stakeholder involvement in a project. This information helps place stakeholders at their current level of engagement on a project and motivates them for more active roles.
The project manager uses certain parameters to determine stakeholders’ level of engagement, such as their needs, interests, and influence level on the project.
This tracking of stakeholders is done using Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix where stakeholders are classified into
| # | Category of Stakeholder | Description |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Ignorant or Unaware |
These stakeholders are unaware of and uninformed about project issues or one can put forward as they pretend to be Ignorant or unaware some times |
|
2 |
Unwilling or Resistant |
These stakeholders are reluctant to change. They are resistant and uncooperative; they are stressors to the project manager, they are strong-headed and difficult to change |
|
3 |
Indifferent or Neutral |
They assume a neutral role but are aware of the project. They neither support, reject nor engage in project activities |
|
4 |
Responsive or Supportive |
They are receptive to change and are informed about the potential effects of changes on the project |
|
5 |
Principal or Leading |
They accept change and actively participate in the project |
From above matrix, it is easy to infer that, stakeholders under category of #1, 2&3 are to be managed by Project Manager most actively. The concerned PM need to move Cat-1,2&3 to Cat-4 &5 what is termed as ‘P-Present’ to ‘D-Desired Level’.
How to Create Stakeholders Engagement Assessment Matrix
- Identify stakeholders – Entities who impacts outcome of the project
- Assessment of Stakeholders – Use here stakeholders mapping techniques such as – Power/Influence/Interest Grid, Salience Model, Direction of Influence, and Stakeholder Cube. Of these, most popular is Power/Influence/Interest Grid.
- Communication Planning –What to share when how
- Build the Matrix and Engage Stakeholderswith communication plan and perform activities to increase the engagement
Use of Stakeholders Engagement Assessment Matrix
- Planning – Helps to strategize and increase the participation of stakeholders by identifying needs and requirements
- Monitoring – The stakeholder assessment matrix helps compare the previous and current levels of stakeholders’ interest and influence on the project. The project manager will know if they are successfully managing stakeholders
- Find Gaps between Actual and Desired Engagement Levels
Integrating with Goals and Objectives
By developing Stakeholders Engagement Matrix and determining their influence on the project and outcomes, this can easily help to communicate goals and objectives and its implementation and tracking easily. It will be easy to achieve objectives defined with group of stakeholders who are – ‘Responsive or Supportive or principal or Leading’.
Summary
Stakeholders’ engagement is key to the success of any project and one must involve stakeholders with the project and ensure that their requirements are accomplished/met. The stakeholder engagement assessment matrix assists project managers in identifying and encouraging stakeholders to work toward successful project completion and achieve project goals and objectives.
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