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Many people will have opinions about what needs to be done, what needs to be spent, and how the work should proceed. These people are called project stakeholders because they have an interest in the deliverables. Their opinions and their approvals determine whether a project is successful or not.
It will be the responsibility of the project manager to identify stakeholders and document their needs. The stakeholders will help define the deliverables of a project, and ultimately, determine the success of a project.
IN CONTEXT
Your group is tasked to create a new type of suit designed for astronauts on spacewalks. How do you identify the stakeholders on this project?
As a project manager, the following is a list you should use to decide if someone is a stakeholder:
Don't count on the support of every stakeholder when the project starts. It might be the end users who support the creation of a more flexible suit, or maybe the engineers want a suit that's easy to maintain. There might also be members of a budget committee that don't approve the additional expense or an executive that believes rovers should be used instead of astronauts.
- They have an interest in the project. Perhaps, in this case, a high-level executive initiated the process to create this new space suit.
- They are affected by what the project delivers, either directly, or indirectly. The organization that manufactures the suit is directly affected. There is another level that is indirectly affected, which is the company that made tools for the older version. They need to create tools to support the new suit.
- Their opinion of the deliverables can impact the results of the project. In your case, the astronaut scheduled to wear the suit.
One of the project's earliest goals may include addressing various concerns. It's important to communicate often and clearly with stakeholders about project progress, and ultimately, its outcomes.
Project stakeholders can include:
It's critical to communicate well with project sponsors since they often advocate for the project.
The project manager will naturally be a stakeholder, but if the project impacts other projects, then the managers of those projects might need to be stakeholders too.
EXAMPLE
A suit used for a spacewalk must work with monitoring equipment, which may introduce another stakeholder: the project manager of the project involving monitoring the quality of equipment and usage.Project team members facilitate the project's work to successful completion. This may include experienced individuals, especially those who've worked on similar projects and might help define deliverables. They too can act as stakeholders.
Key decision makers may require a large chain of people that need to approve certain elements at each stage, such as budget, schedule, and resource negotiations.
EXAMPLE
Building a space suit might involve public money. In that case, political decision-makers would be stakeholders too.Customers or users who benefit or directly interact with deliverables created by the project can be stakeholders. Sometimes the user population could be very large. In that case, target users can be defined to serve as representatives.
Source: This work is adapted from Sophia Author Jeff Carroll.