Newsletter [2]

With many pitfalls that lead to project failure, I believe that a good project manager and project team need to manage successfully the relationship and expectation of their stakeholders. Over the last few months I have posted a series of articles regarding Stakeholder Management and this is the final installment.

To write this article I chose to use the framework for stakeholder management developed by Dr. Harold Kerzner. These articles highlight the entire stakeholder management process. Here is what was covered in the first three articles:

In the first installment we discussed the Overview of Stakeholder Management Process (Part 1) [3] and described a few simple techniques to help identify the key project stakeholders. 

In the second installment we covered: How to analyze your Stakeholders (Part 2 [4]). We discussed and demonstrated how to map the project stakeholders and how to categorize each stakeholder so that can tailor the project manager’s future relationship with each stakeholder.

In the third installment: “Know what’s in it for each stakeholder – Who’s out to Kill Your Project” (Part 3), [5] I discussed and demonstrated how to identify the wins for each stakeholder and how you can influence the stakeholders to support the project. 

In this last installment I will cover – “Stakeholder Management – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly “(Part 4). Stakeholder management involves ways to identify, clarify and determining how best to manage and communicate with all impacted parties. Not all stakeholders are the same and they will not all be managed the same.  To help understand project stakeholders the following categories are used to describe them, they are the “Good”, “Bad” and “Ugly”.  Here is a brief description of each of these categories. 

The “Good” Stakeholder
The good stakeholders are people that are positively impacted by the project, ones who have bought into the project and they will work to help the project succeed.  We want this person informed of what is going on and keep them in the loop on all the issues.

Other ways to describe a “good” stakeholder:

1. Sponsor/Project Champion
2. Someone that can be trusted
3. Supporter of the project

The “Bad” Stakeholder
These are the stakeholders that have not bought into the project. They could have a hidden agenda or they think they have a better way to do the project based on their past experience. 

“Bad” Stakeholders can also be described as:

1. Misinformed stakeholder
2. Unengaged stakeholder
3. A stakeholder who is too busy

The “Ugly” Stakeholder
These stakeholders are the ones that have overstayed their welcome on the project.  They are the “bad apples” who complain about everything without having a sound basis for their complaint and issues.  If they could, the “Ugly” Stakeholder would sabotage the project at a drop of a hat.  They don’t like the project, but they don’t have all the information to judge the project outcome. They hinder progress, just because.
  
Additional description of the “Ugly” Stakeholder:

1. Whiners
2. Complainers
3. Naysayers

Although these categories are simple and easy to classify, there are other ways to classify our stakeholders.  Regardless of what categories our stakeholder fall in, we have a few prescriptive ways to handle these stakeholders.

The solution to handling the different types of stakeholders

Regardless of the type of stakeholders you are dealing with. There are some basic keys to dealing with them that will apply to each type. Here are some guidelines that we feel with contribute to having a more successful relationship with the different stakeholders you encounter. 

1. Get to Know Your Stakeholders
The project team must know each stakeholder. The team should also be able to determine which stakeholders are critical at a specific point in time. Find out as much as you can about each stakeholder involved with your project. It is important to get to know them as quickly as possible.
Searching out the critical data requires diplomacy and effective communications. Utilize different elicitation techniques to gather information about each stakeholder. Lastly, you can use a stakeholder identification matrix to capture and analyze your stakeholder information.

2. Perform Stakeholder Engagement
Go beyond the identification of your stakeholders by performing stakeholder engagement methods. You will have to actively get involve with each stakeholder in order to get them involved in the project management planning process. Here are ways to engage your stakeholders:

1. Get to know them
2. Understand them and their expectations
3. Understand their needs
4. Value their opinions
5. Find ways to win their support on a continuous basis
6. Identify any stakeholder problems early-on that can influence the project

3.  Understand Your Key Stakeholders
In your stakeholder management process, you have identified your stakeholders and actively used techniques to get them engaged in the project. How much do you really understand about the stakeholders that are greatly concerned about the outcome of your project and those who have power to influence the project results (Key Stakeholders)?  These stakeholders must be regularly informed about what is going on with the project.  As you communicate with them and get them involved, you want to understand some critical information about these key stakeholders.  Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help understand your key stakeholder’s interests:

1. What financial or emotional interest do they have in the outcome of your work? Is it positive or negative?
2. What motivates them most of all?
3. What information do they really want from you?
4. How do they want to receive the information from you?
5. What is the best way of communicating your message to them?
6. What is their current opinion of your work?

The many facets of a project require the project manager to have a complete toolbox and techniques to manage their project.  One facet of a project is managing the people that are impacted by the project.  The project manager and project team rely on all the resources at their disposal to generate the product, service and results that are the deliverables of a project. Critical Success Factors are defined in the early stages of the project to monitor the performance of the project before, during and after the project completion. In addition to managing the constraints of a project, the project team must actively manage the stakeholders that have varying roles.  These stakeholders can be either: “Good”, “Bad” or “Ugly”.  But they all must be managed properly and with care to ensure successful project completion. 

A project manager does not have to guess or invent new ways to handle the stakeholders. They can apply a Stakeholder Management Process that is outlined in this and the other articles in this series. So I encourage you to: identify, engage and know your stakeholders. If you work on this aspect of your project, you can expect benefits of running a successful project.

© 2010 allPM.com

George Bridges (MS, PMP) is a trainer and senior consultant for the Business Analysis and the Project Management certification programs for International Institute for Learning (IIL). He has an extensive background in systems development and operations research. He has over 30 years of experience analyzing and developing business systems for major global corporations and gathering and producing requirements analysis and solution assessment and validation for manufacturing, telecommunication, Web-based, and financial systems in industry and the nonprofit arena.