Your project’s success depends on the satisfaction of your project stakeholders. Sometimes, you have completed the project; the client has accepted all deliverables. However, the project is not successful because some of your stakeholders are not happy.
Stakeholder satisfaction is a sign of successful project completion.
Now, you might be wondering who the project stakeholders are and whom you have to satisfy for the successful completion of your project.
I am writing this blog post to answer these queries, and I hope to clear up any doubts you may have about project stakeholders
Stakeholders
According to themanbet最新版, “A stakeholder is an individual, group, or organization who may affect, be affected by or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project.”
Put more simply, a stakeholder is a person, a group of people, or an organization that has an interest in your project or is affected by its outcome, directly or indirectly. It may include project team members, project sponsors, organization members, and people outside of your organization.
If the project is small, you will have a few stakeholders. For a larger project, you may have a huge number of stakeholders, which may include communities or the public. In this case,managing stakeholderswill be challenging.
For example, if you are going to construct a dam, the number of stakeholders will be large. They will include governments, local authorities, the population that is going to be displaced, the population living near the dam, environmentalists, the project management team, higher management, etc.
Not all stakeholders are equal. Everyone has different requirements and expectations. You should treat them according to their requirements and expectations. Failing to do so can jeopardize your project’s success.
If you understand stakeholders’ needs, expectations, and requirements, your chances of success increase. Overlooking any important stakeholder can make the situation more difficult for you at later stages of the project. It may cause a delay in the project, cost overrun, and in the most severe cases, abrupt project termination.
Types of Project Stakeholders
Project stakeholders can be grouped into two categories:
- Internal Stakeholders
- External Stakeholders
Internal Stakeholders
Internal stakeholders are within the organization. For example:
- A sponsor
- An internal customer or client (if the project is for an internal need of an organization)
- A project team
- A program manager
- A portfolio manager
- Management
- Another group’s manager (e.g., functional manager, operational manager, admin manager, etc.).
These stakeholders generally have the highest interest in the project’s success.
External Stakeholders
External stakeholders are outside the organization. For example:
- An external customer or client (if the project is a result of a contract)
- An end user of the project’s outcome
- A supplier
- Subcontractors
- The government
- Local authorities
- Local communities
- The media
As you can see, external stakeholders include clients, governments, and local authorities, and these are very powerful entities. Therefore, you have to manage them carefully.
Positive Stakeholders and Negative Stakeholders
Stakeholders can be positive or negative.
A positive stakeholder sees the project’s positive side and benefits from its success. These stakeholders help the project management team to complete the project successfully.
On the other hand, a negative stakeholder sees the outcome and may be negatively impacted by the project or its outcome. This type of stakeholder is less likely to contribute to the success of the project.
Many professionals think that competitors are also negative stakeholders as your project affects them as well. Please note that competitors are not negative stakeholders because you have to manage your stakeholders proactively to complete your project successfully, but you do not manage or fulfill your competitors’ requirements.
The public can be a stakeholder, as we have seen in the earlier example. In this case, it would be impractical to manage the whole population, so you will consult their public figures or leaders to understand their requirements and expectations.
Some examples of this type of project are related to mining, the environment, roads, railways, dam building, etc.
You should identify your stakeholders at a very early stage of the project, and record them in thestakeholder register.
Some stakeholders will have low interest or influence on your project. However, you have to manage them as well, because they could become influential stakeholders.
Summary
Stakeholders are individuals or a group of individuals who are affected by your project or have an interest in it. It is important to identify stakeholders at the beginning of the project and develop a strategy to manage them and their requirements. This will help you complete the project with minimal obstruction because getting them involved with your project will render the support you need it
What about your project’s stakeholders? How did you find them? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
This topic is important from a PMP certification exam point of view; you are going to come across many questions on this topic.
page number of document?
for refrences
Hello Ali, you can refer to the stakeholder management knowledge area in the PMBOK Guide.
can you explain types of stakeholders in terms of 1) neutral stakeholders 2) Supportive stakeholders 3) leading stakeholders 4) Influencing stakeholders
Hello Asfand, please read the following blog post:
https://www.projectengineer.net/guide-to-stakeholder-management/
how do you know those stakeholders?? Is it just something like assume or create a persona?
If they are impacted by your project, then they are your project’s stakeholders.
help me
Hello Farah,
How I can help you?
:Project stakeholders are categorized in to three types.
Really great article that’s helped me a lot today with my studies. Thank you. Researching shareholders next!
You are welcome Sam.
What are the deliverables of the project?
可交付成果是一种有形或无形的好service produced as a result of a project that is intended to be delivered to a customer (either internal or external). A deliverable could be a report, a document, a software product, a server upgrade or any other building block of an overall project. (Source: Wikipedia)
What is the background of the project ?
Please read the following article:
http://www.mymanagementguide.com/project-background/
Who are the key stakeholders
For example, client, top management, any government department, etc.
I need to know whether Project Manger is also a stakeholder or NOT .
Pl explain.
Yes, the project manager is a stakeholder because it is his or her project.
Its very useful article & informative but there is no elaboration on negative and positive stakeholders..!
Hello Talat,
I will include it in the next update of this blog post.
I am preparing for the CAPM exam, I was wondering if you could guide or give out some tips that would benefit me in preparing for the exam. Your guidance will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Do you have any project management experience or planning to attend a training?
Thanks fahad for this article, pls can u direct me to a Web site where i can get ” The role of user as stakeholder in project management process”.
You can search on Google. I don’t have any resource with me.
This is superb contributions to PM student, but what of categories of stake holders, as antogonistic, low priority as well as supportive stake holders taught by my lecturer???
You can define how are you going to classify stakeholder in your project management plan and go for it.
Hello, I am a student and this is really beneficial for me.
Just wanted to know if you could give me the questionnaire of this research it would be really helpful.
Sorry Kinan, I don’t have it.
Please what are the modalities that must be established for a group creativity problem solving?
Please read following article published on projectmanagement.com
https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-post/8359/Group-Creativity-Techniques-to-Collect-Requirements-
Very informative article,thanks fahad
You are welcome Tylor.
Very well written
You are welcome Karan.
Fahad, Very scholarly piece on Stakeholders in PM. I enjoyed reading it.
Thanks Vijay for your comment.
Dear Mr. Fahad
If i still have some invoices not paid to the seller , is this mean the project still not closed ???
Thanks
You have to close all procurement contracts before closing the project.
Thanks FAHAD..
you shared a useful knowlede..
Thanks for your comments Saddam.
I think it date is very helpful for me to prepare my presentation..
Thanks Umair for your comment.
Stakeholders are classified according to: Power, Influence, and what others?
Hope this will clarify your doubt:
//www.vhgallery.com/2012/06/stakeholder-analysis-stakeholder-management-strategy/
we need the positive impacts of involving stakeholders in projects
We also need to manage negative impacts of stakeholders..
it a wonderful article, has helped me a lot
thanks
You’re welcome Koech.
that was wonderful, will real assist,
thanks you
It’s like you’re on a misoisn to save me time and money!
:)
Real concise and comprehensive.
Thanks
You are welcome Merle.
One of the best explanations and easy to understand, Thankyou for posted that data for guiding us!
keep posting all relevent material of Project managemnet.
Thanks Sumair for you comment.
VERY USE FULL ARTICLE
Thnx
You are welcome Sadham.
That was a really helpful piece of writing, gonna help me out with my college report a heep!
Cheers!
I am glad that you find it useful.
You need to separate true stakeholders from project team members and SMEs. The true stakeholders are identified through understanding the organisation, operating model and also related dependent projects.