Project Stakeholder Management

Project Stakeholder Management includes the processes required to identify the people, groups, or organizations that could impact or be impacted by the project, to analyze stakeholder expectations and their impact on the project, and to develop appropriate management strategies for effectively engaging stakeholders in project decisions and execution.

Stakeholder management also focuses on continuous communication with stakeholders to understand their needs and expectations, addressing issues as they occur, managing conflicting interests and fostering (培養) appropriate stakeholder engagement in project decisions and activities.

13.1 Identify Stakeholders
● Identify Stakeholders is the process of identifying the people, groups, or organizations that could impact or be impacted by a decision, activity, or outcome of the project.
Stakeholders may be at different levels within the organization and may possess different authority levels, or may be external to the performing organization for the project.
It is critical for project success to identify the stakeholders early in the project or phase and to analyze their levels of interest, their individual expectations, as well as their importance and influence.
Stakeholders should be classified according to their interest, influence, and involvement in the project.

13.1.2.1 Stakeholder Analysis
● Stakeholder analysis is a technique of systematically gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative information to determine whose interests should be taken into account throughout the project.
It identifies the interests, expectations, and influence of the stakeholders and relates them to the purpose of the project.
The stakeholders are potential partnerships to enhance the project's chance of success.
Stakeholder analysis generally follows the steps described below:

• Identify all potential project stakeholders and relevant information, such as their roles, departments, interests, knowledge, expectations, and influence levels.
  Key stakeholders are usually easy to identify.
  They include anyone in a decision-making or management role who is impacted by the project outcome, such as the sponsor, the project manager, and the primary customer.
• Analyze the potential impact or support each stakeholder could generate, and classify them so as to define an approach strategy. In large stakeholder communities, it is important to prioritize the stakeholders to ensure the efficient use of effort to communicate and manage their expectations.
• Assess how key stakeholders are likely to react or respond in various situations, in order to plan how to influence them to enhance their support and mitigate potential negative impacts.

There are multiple classification models used for stakeholders analysis, such as:

• Power/interest grid - grouping the stakeholders based on their level of authority (“power”) and their level or concern (“interest”) regarding the project outcomes;
• Power/influence grid - grouping the stakeholders based on their level of authority (“power”) and their active involvement (“influence”) in the project;
• Influence/impact grid - grouping the stakeholders based on their active involvement (“influence”) in the project and their ability to effect changes to the project's planning or execution (“impact”); and
• Salience Model (顯著模式) - describing classes of stakeholders based on their power (ability to impose their will), urgency (need for immediate attention), and legitimacy [合法,適法,正當] (their involvement [連累] is appropriate).

13.2 Plan Stakeholder Management
● Plan Stakeholder Management identifies how the project will affect stakeholders, which then allows the project manager to develop various ways to effectively engage stakeholders in the project, to manage their expectations, and to ultimately achieving the project objectives.

Stakeholder management is more than improving communications and requires more than managing a team.
Stakeholder management is about creation and maintenance of relationships between the project team and stakeholders, with the aim to satisfy their respective needs and requirements within project boundaries.

This process generates the stakeholder management plan, which contains detailed plans on how effective stakeholder management can be realized.
As the project progresses, the membership of the stakeholder community and required level of engagement may change, therefore, stakeholder management planning is an iterative process that is reviewed on a regular basis by the project manager.

13.2.2.3 Analytical Techniques
● The current engagement level of all stakeholders needs to be compared to the planned engagement levels required for successful project completion. Stakeholder engagement throughout the life cycle of the project is critical to project success.

The engagement level of the stakeholders can be classified as follows:

• Unaware - Unaware of project and potential impacts.
• Resistant - Aware of project and potential impacts and resistant to change.
• Neutral - Aware of project yet neither supportive nor resistant.
• Supportive - Aware of project and potential impacts and supportive to change.
• Leading - Aware of project and potential impacts and actively engaged in ensuring the project is a success.

The current engagement can be documented using Stakeholders Engagement Assessment Matrix.
Where C indicates the current engagement, and D indicates the desired engagement. Stakeholder 3 is at the desired engagement level, while stakeholders 1 and 2 require further communications and additional actions to move them to the desired level of engagement.