Chapter 3: Project Stakeholder and

Communication Management
Project Stakeholder Management

Definition:
Stakeholder refers to any people or groups who could impact /are impacted by a project,
initiative, policy or organization.

Stakeholder management is defined as the process by which you organize, monitor, and improve
your relationships with your stakeholders.

Purpose Of Project Stakeholder Management

• Is to identify all people or organizations affected by a project, to analyze stakeholder
expectations, and to effectively engage stakeholders
 Project Stakeholder Management Processes
• Identifying stakeholders:

• Identifying everyone involved in the project or could impact or be impacted by it

• determining the best ways to manage relationships with them.

• analyzing and documenting relevant information regarding their

✓ Interests

✓ Involvement

✓ Interdependencies

✓ influence and potential impact on project success.

• Helps PM to have appropriate focus for each stakeholder

• Planning stakeholder management:

• strategies to effectively engage stakeholders

 Project Stakeholder Management Processes…CTD
• Managing stakeholder engagement:

• Communicating and working with project stakeholders

• satisfy their needs and expectations

• resolving issues,

• fostering engagement in decisions and activities

• Controlling stakeholder engagement

• Monitoring stakeholder relationships

• adjusting plans and strategies for engaging stakeholders as needed

Identifying stakeholders
 Output: Stakeholder register
• A stakeholder register includes basic
information on stakeholders:
– Identification information: The stakeholders’ names,
positions, locations, roles in the project, and contact
information
– Assessment information: The stakeholders’ major
requirements and expectations, potential influences, and
phases of the project in which stakeholders have the most
interest
– Stakeholder classification: Is the stakeholder internal or
external to the organization? Is the stakeholder a
supporter of the project or resistant to it?
 Key Project Stakeholders
• The project manager
• SPONSOR– the person or group that provides the financial resources, in cash or kind, for the project
– Project Initiator
– Ensures project relevance
– Helps in objectives setting
• Customer/user/client– the person or organization that will use the project/s product.
• Performing organization—the enterprise whose employees are most directly involved in doing the work of
the project.
• Project team members– the group that is performing the work of the project
• Project management team– the members of the project team who are directly involved in project management
activities

• Potential opponents: Groups which may oppose or obstruct a project.

• Competitors
• SUPPLIER--- Provides resources

• Community members

• Creditors

• Government
 Classifying Stakeholders

• Classification Basis:

➢ Internal vs External
➢ Power/interest grid
➢ Stakeholder Engagement Levels

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 Internal External Classification
• Internal project stakeholders
▪ project sponsor
▪ top management
▪ project managers
▪ project team
▪ support staff
• External project stakeholders
• project’s customers
• Competitors
• Suppliers
• government officials
• concerned citizens

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 Power/interest grid Classification
• Based on their level of authority (power) and their level of concern (interest) for
project outcomes
 Classification Based on Stakeholder Engagement
Levels
▪ Unaware: Unaware of the project and its potential
impacts on them
▪ Resistant: Aware of the project yet resistant to change
▪ Neutral: Aware of the project yet neither supportive nor
resistant
▪ Supportive: Aware of the project and supportive of
change
▪ Leading: Aware of the project
Information Technology Project
Management, Eighth Edition 12
 Sample Stakeholder Analysis
Power/ Current
Name Potential Management Strategies
Interest Engagement

Stephen High/high Leading Stephen can seem intimidating due to his physical stature and deep voice,
but he has a great personality and sense of humor. He previously led a
similar refinery upgrade program at another company and knows what he
wants. Manage closely and ask for his advice as needed. He likes short,
frequent updates in person.

Chien High/ medium Resistant Chien is a very organized yet hardheaded man. He has been pushing
corporate IT standards, and the system the PM and sponsor (Debra and
Stephen) like best goes against those standards, even though it's the best
solution for this project and the company as a whole. Need to convince
him that this is okay and that people still respect his work and position.

Ryan Medium/ high Supportive Ryan has been with the company for several years and is well respected,
but he feels threatened by Debra. He also resents her getting paid more
than he does. He wants to please his boss, Chien, first and foremost. Need
to convince him that the suggested solution is in everyone's best interest.

Betsy High/low Neutral Very professional, logical person, (lets along well with Chien. She has
supported Debra in approving past projects with strong business cases.
Provide detailed financial justification for the suggested solution to keep
her satisfied. Also ask her to talk to Chien on Debra's behalf.
 Planning Stakeholder Management

• After identifying and analyzing stakeholders, project

teams should develop a plan for management them
• The stakeholder management plan can include:
– Current and desired engagement levels
– Interrelationships between stakeholders
– Communication requirements
– Potential management strategies for each stakeholders
– Methods for updating the stakeholder management plan
 Sensitive Information

• Because a stakeholder management plan often

includes sensitive information, it should not be
part of the official project documents, which are
normally available for all stakeholders to review
• In many cases, only project managers and a few
other team members should prepare the
stakeholder management plan
• Parts of the stakeholder management plan are
not written down, and if they are, distribution is
strictly limited

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 Managing Stakeholder Engagement

• It is the process of developing approaches to involve project stakeholders

based on their expectations, interests and potential impact on the project
• Key Benefit: Provides actionable plan to interact effectively with
stakeholders
• Project success is often measured in terms of customer/sponsor
satisfaction
• Stakeholders are engaged when they seek understanding and solutions to
issues of mutual concern

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Controlling Stakeholder Engagement

▪ Does the project met stakeholders

expectation?

▪ Monitoring stakeholder relationships

and adjusting plans and strategies for
engaging as needed

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 Project Communications Management

Learning Objectives

▪ Understand the importance of good communications in

projects.

▪ Explain the elements of project communications planning,

including how to create a communications management
plan and perform a stakeholder communications analysis.

▪ Describe various methods for distributing project

information

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 Importance of Good Communications

▪ The greatest threat to many projects is a failure to communicate.

▪ Most professionals are not good communicators.
▪ Professionals must be able to communicate effectively to succeed
in their positions.
▪ Strong verbal skills are a key factor in career advancement for
professionals.

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 Project Communications Management Processes

▪ Communications planning: Determining the information and

communications needs of the stakeholders.

▪ Information distribution: Making needed information available to

project stakeholders in a timely manner.

▪ Performance reporting: Collecting and disseminating performance

information, including status reports, progress measurement, and
forecasting.

▪ Managing stakeholders: Managing communications to satisfy the

needs and expectations of project stakeholders and to resolve issues.

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 Communications Planning
▪ Every project should include some type of communications
management plan, a document that guides project
communications.

▪ Creating a stakeholder analysis for project communications also

aids in communications planning.

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 Communications Management Plan Contents

▪ Stakeholder communications requirements.

▪ Information to be communicated, including format, content, and level of

detail.

▪ The people who will receive the information and who will produce it.

▪ Suggested methods or technologies for conveying the information.

▪ Frequency of communication.

▪ Escalation procedures for resolving issues.

▪ Revision procedures for updating the communications management plan.

▪ A glossary of common terminology.

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Sample Stakeholder Analysis for Project Communications

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 Distributing Information in an Effective and Timely Manner

▪ Getting the right information to the right people at the right time and in a
useful format is just as important as developing the information in the first
place.

▪ Don’t bury crucial information.

▪ Don’t be afraid to report bad information.

▪ More Face-to-Face Interactions/ Oral communication via meetings and

informal talks helps bring important information—good and bad—out into
the open.

▪ Short, frequent meetings are often very effective in projects.

▪ Stand-up meetings force people to focus on what they really need to communicate.

▪ Using technology to enhance information distribution.

▪ Formal and informal methods for distributing information.

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 Importance of Face-to-Face Communication
▪ Research says that in a face-to-face interaction:

▪ 58 percent of communication is through body language.

▪ 35 percent of communication is through how the words are said.

▪ 7 percent of communication is through the content or words that

are spoken.

▪ Pay attention to more than just the actual words someone is saying.

▪ A person’s tone of voice and body language says a lot about how he or
she really feels.

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Media Choice Table

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 Personal Preferences Affect Communication Needs

▪ Introverts like more private communications, while extroverts like to

discuss things in public.

▪ Intuitive people like to understand the big picture, while sensing

people need step-by-step details.

▪ Thinkers want to know the logic behind decisions, while feeling people
want to know how something affects them personally.

▪ Judging people are driven to meet deadlines while perceiving people

need more help in developing and following plans.

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 Other Communication Considerations

▪ Rarely does the receiver interpret a message exactly as the sender

intended.

▪ Cultural background affect the complexity of project communications.

▪ Language barriers

▪ Different cultures & norms

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 Performance Reporting

▪ Performance reporting keeps stakeholders informed about how

resources are being used to achieve project objectives.

▪ Status reports describe where the project stands at a specific point

in time.

▪ Progress reports describe what the project team has accomplished

during a certain period of time.

▪ Forecasts predict future project status and progress based on past

information and trends.

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 Managing Stakeholders

▪ Project managers must understand and work with various stakeholders.

▪ Need to devise a way to identify and resolve issues.

▪ Two important tools include:

▪ Expectations management matrix

▪ Issue log

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Expectations Management Matrix

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Issue Log

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