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Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Stakeholder Analysis & Management (20-slide PowerPoint presentation). A document providing the key steps for conducting Stakeholder Analysis and Management to support Change Communication and Engagement activity. The document structure includes What is Stakeholder Management, Benefits of Stakeholder Management, the fours Stages of Stakeholder Management [read more]
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Yesterday, a Project Management Best Practice was shared regarding stakeholders, whom are important to any project’s success.
According to Do your stakeholders know why your project exists? article (published on CIO.com), you need to conduct a kickoff meeting, distribute the statement of work, conduct regular meetings, and produce summary reports.
I absolutely agree with the author Brad Egeland! However, I would ask, “Now that your stakeholders know why your project exists, are they supportive?”
I can remember being a team member on my first Operational Excellence (OpEx) project. After three months, the OpEx team just prioritized the solutions to be implemented and the project lead was submitting the proposed solutions for funding and legal approvals. Well, legal halted the project because of adherence to multiple states’ compliance and regulatory rules and needed time to review all 50 states’ laws prior to implementing any changes. The legal and compliance review process delayed the project by three months before approvals were obtained.
Stakeholder analysis in conflict resolution and project management, is the process of identifying individuals or groups that are likely to affect or be affected by a proposed action, and sorting them according to their impact on the action and the impact the action will have on them.
The stakeholder analysis tool documents the current and required sentiments of those interested in the outcome of a project.
The stakeholder analysis confirms management or stakeholder acceptance and prioritization of project and team efforts.
A stakeholder analysis helps to eliminate low priority projects and ensures management support and compatibility with business goals.
A stakeholder analysis is used when initiating a project that will likely affect individuals or groups, preferably at the kickoff meeting.
The Support Definitions Are Listed as Follows:
The Prioritization of Developing Action Plans Should Be:
In conclusion, the stakeholder analysis tool helps project teams develop a detailed sense of who the key stakeholders are, how they currently feel about the change initiative, and the level of support they need to exhibit for the change initiative to have a good chance for success.
The tool also helps project teams begin to discover how to influence relationships and strategies that will be effective for each key stakeholder.
Additionally, the stakeholder analysis should be used when the project team is ready and able to handle a discussion of specific individuals and how these stakeholders currently view the change initiative. It can also be used throughout the process to strategize about how to influence a new stakeholder who has just emerged. Had the aforementioned project lead conducted a stakeholder analysis at the beginning of the project, legal would have either prioritized their actions as to not delay the project or advised management that the project needed to be placed on hold pending compliance reviews.
Have you started a project recently?
Download the Simple Stakeholder Analysis Tool to ensure project success from Flevy.com here.
You can download in-depth presentations on Stakeholder Management and 100s of management topics from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives.
For even more best practices available on Flevy, have a look at our top 100 lists:
These best practices are of the same as those leveraged by top-tier management consulting firms, like McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and Accenture. Improve the growth and efficiency of your organization by utilizing these best practice frameworks, templates, and tools. Most were developed by seasoned executives and consultants with over 20+ years of experience.
