Hello everyone.
Who would you define as a project stakeholder? Possibly list some categories of
stakeholders
There are many definitions defined for project stakeholders by various authors. As per the Project management institute (PMI, 2021), stakeholders are people, groups, or entities that may be impacted, influenced, or believe they are impacted by any decision, action, or result of a project, program, or portfolio. To me, a project stakeholder is anyone who might impact the project's success. We can categorize them as external or internal stakeholders. Also, using the power-interest grid, they can be categorized into four categories: monitor, informed, satisfy and manage (Meredith & Shafer, 2020).
Reasons why stakeholder management is important to project success.
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Proactively managing stakeholders is important to address their concerns before they become issues (PMI, 2021)
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It can help limit the scope by managing stakeholder expectations.
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Effective stakeholder management can help us seek their help when needed for the success of the project.
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Reduce the impact of the influence of negative stakeholders while increasing the impact of positive stakeholders.
Example of good stakeholder management
I would like to discuss how stakeholder management was crucial to my project's success at IBM. Specifically, we were tasked with implementing SAP ERP software for a client. During the design phase, we observed that the finance team held more sway in
the decision-making process and had good technical knowledge too. By leveraging their
expertise and influence, we were able to create a system that met the needs of all stakeholders involved in the project. This streamlined the development process, leading
to faster user acceptance and a reduction in overall project cost and development time.
What are some possible consequences of stakeholder mismanagement?
If stakeholders in a project are not effectively managed, it can hinder the project’s ability
to achieve its goals. Poor stakeholder management can result in frequent changes, increased costs, and problems with quality. Additionally, a project's success is determined by its stakeholders' satisfaction (Heathcote et al., 2020). According to Meredith and Shafer (2020), mismanaging stakeholders can lead to poor communication, which can cause confusion and dissatisfaction among stakeholders. This can negatively impact team morale and lead to actions that can disrupt the project.
How can these insights be integrated into your capstone Stakeholder Register?
From my experience and research for this discussion, I think we can use a stakeholder register to maintain details of stakeholders like expectations, communication preferences, skills, etc. to engage them effectively. Also, we need to
