Examples of stakeholders in a project

The stakeholders in each particular project will vary depending on the type of project and
industry, but here are a few examples of the types of stakeholders in project management you
might need to consider:

 Project manager
 Team members
 Managers
 Resource managers
 Executives
 Senior management
 Company owners
 Investors
 Sponsors
 Financiers (the people, not the cakes)
 Suppliers
 Vendors
 Consultants
 Customers
 End users

So how do you know which stakeholders you need to focus on for your particular project? For
that, you need to do a stakeholder analysis.
How to do a stakeholder analysis
As soon as your project charter is complete and the scope of your project is defined, you can use
it to start mapping out your stakeholders. Here’s how to get the ball rolling with a basic
stakeholder analysis process.

1. Identify your stakeholders

First step, you need to identify who your stakeholders actually are. To do this, draw on your
project charter and any other project plans and documentation to compile a full list of your
project stakeholders, both internal and external.
Bear in mind that some stakeholders won’t come into play until later in the project lifecycle —
but if you can anticipate who they’ll be in advance, you can start to get their buy-in, build the
relationship from the outset, and help them to feel involved from the beginning.

2. Prioritize your stakeholders

Once you’ve identified all of your stakeholders, you can start to prioritize them.

Prioritizing your stakeholders is important because it helps you understand where to invest your
resources. In other words, it helps you — as the project manager — to identify who the key
decision makers are at any given moment, so you can ensure that you’re talking to the right
people, at the right time.

There are a few methods of doing this stakeholder prioritization, but one simple way is to plot
them out using a power/interest (or power/influence, or impact/influence) grid.

The power/interest grid helps you to identify your key stakeholders by answering two key
questions that help you to group them into one of four categories:

 What level of power do they have?: How important is it that they’re happy with the
project’s progress and results? How integral are they to the project’s success? How
influential are they to the project, to other stakeholders, to the team, and so on?
(Remember: a stakeholder’s influence can be positive or negative!)
 What level of interest do they have?: Is this project super important to them, or are they
only tangentially connected to it? Is it something they’re directly accountable for? Are
they reliant on it for other work or results? Are they opposed to the project or concerned
about it in some way?
As we can see from the (highly technologically-advanced) matrix above, stakeholders who fall
into the top-right quadrant (powerful + interested) are the ones you should be giving extra
attention to, because they’re the ones who can have the most impact on your project — for better
or for worse.

3. Understand your stakeholders

Now that you know who the key players are and which ones to prioritize, you need to get a full
grasp of their expectations for the project.

For key stakeholders, this might involve meeting up for a short face-to-face interview or
conversation where you discuss things like:
  What their definition of project success looks like
 Any concerns or reservations they have about the project or its outcomes
 What their expectations for the project are
 What impact a positive or negative project outcome would have on them
 Whether there are any anticipated conflicts of interest with other stakeholders that you
need to be aware of

Not only will these conversations help you to understand each stakeholder’s involvement in, and
outlook on, the project, but it also helps you to build a bigger picture of your stakeholder
network and how each stakeholder interrelates.

And on a personal level, meeting with the key stakeholders at the beginning of the project helps
you to feel out some basic interpersonal preferences (like communication style), as well as start
building your relationships with each stakeholder.

As you’re doing this, it’s also helpful to keep your eyes open for any political, cultural, or
environmental cues, if you can. Picking up on things like the political climate of the
organization, how your key stakeholders interact with each other, and any potential conflicts of
interest can help to give you some essential context when it comes to running your project or
pre-empting certain decisions — and it’s a project manager superpower that you should start
cultivating as soon as possible.

How to manage your project stakeholders

Now, that doesn’t mean that the stakeholder is always right — and your job as a project manager
will sometimes involve pushing back on your stakeholders and re-balancing their expectations
with the project charter and project plan you all agreed on at the start.

The tricky part is in balancing everyone’s needs, requirements and objectives so you can keep
your stakeholders happy — while also delivering the project you set out to deliver.

Here are a few ways you can establish some best practices for stakeholder management and
develop better stakeholder relationships at every phase of your project.

Document each stakeholder’s roles and needs

All that work you did identifying your stakeholders and their individual needs in relation to your
project? Put it to good use by compiling it into a shared, accessible document to make sure you
have a record of everyone’s role and responsibilities and keep you all on the same page.
Creating a stakeholder register for your project helps you to keep track of a long list of people
and priorities. With a definitive document you can update, edit, and consult as your project
progresses, you can ensure that you’re always driving the project in the right direction and
keeping the right people informed at the right times.

And speaking of which…

Communicate with your stakeholders

As a project manager, keeping your stakeholders informed, included, and inspired throughout the
lifecycle of your project is one of your most important jobs.

As mentioned above, your “priority” stakeholders will probably shift depending on which phase
of your project you’re at. That’s a good thing, allowing you to direct your energy where it’s
needed and avoid overloading people with irrelevant information.

That’s important, because while you want to give your stakeholders visibility, over-
communication ca

n be just as frustrating as under-communication.

Using a project management tool with lots of different communication options means that you
can tailor your notifications to each stakeholder’s unique needs, while still keeping a full audit
history of every action and decision (which is especially handy when it comes to reporting time).

Give project stakeholders visibility over what matters to them

Help each stakeholder to cut through the noise and get immediate insights into the metrics that
are most important to them by creating custom Dashboards. Build personalized Dashboards with
panels to keep track of things like tasks, project statuses, team activity, milestones, risks, and
more, so your stakeholders can quickly see how certain parts of the project are progressing and
get an immediate overview of the information they care about at a glance.

Stakeholders shouldn’t be an afterthought. Instead, build them into your project from the
beginning, by communicating regularly, keeping them up-to-date and involved, and ensuring
they feel valued and listened.