Increase project success and reduce risk by identifying the right stakeholders

How stakeholders can affect your project

Failure to identify the right stakeholder at the right stage of your project and you run the risk of your project failing. Additionally, some stakeholders may have their own personal agendas that are at odds with the project and may need to be incentivised to accept a stake in the project. However, without stakeholder support, it’s unlikely you’ll deliver the project as they have access to information, an appreciation of the politics, and they know who to speak to and why. They also are providers of resources, material and funding.

It's through engagement with stakeholders that support can be gained but for this to be successful, it’s important the right stakeholders are identified. it’s not just about identifying a person or department or group but also identifying their relationships, their motivations and their interest. Some may force themselves on you while others remain hidden until it’s too late.

Unfortunately, stakeholders can have an effect on most areas of project delivery. They could provide the wrong information which can affect delivery estimates, product quality and the wrong risk mitigation. If those with power and influence aren’t identified, it could lead to delays in release of funds. Your detailed and carefully planned schedule can quickly unravel if the right stakeholders are not identified and successfully engaged.

Stakeholder identification is all about finding stakeholders who can provide the required support at the right time. With that being said, focusing on individuals and not taking a holistic approach to stakeholder identification may result in a failure to get the right support for the project. Stakeholders have relationships with other stakeholders, they have their own views and opinions and knowledge of the environment in which the project is delivering. To add to the problem, stakeholders change their opinions, their allegiances and are affected by real world events. They’re part of an ever changing and adapting social network. One day they support your project and then the next minute they’re not sure or worse, become blockers.

Tools to help identification

At the beginning of a project, you have no option but to make initial assumptions as to the stakeholder environment. You may have been told which group will be affected by the project outcome and may have even been given a list of people to engage. As identification starts and assumptions are made facts, you need to explore how the stakeholders interact, how external factors impact them and how changes can ripple across the whole organisation. As they’re identified it can help to use a framework (Figure 1) such as one proposed by Lynda Bourne in Making projects work: Effective Stakeholder and communication management. It provides a useful categorisation and helps you look at the stake and to map the influence of each stakeholder. To appreciate the environment in which a stakeholder operates and the impact of the project outcomes on the organisation’s operations, there is benefit in sketching out the organisation’s business model. Alexander Osterwalder’s Business model generation: A handbook of visionaries, game changers, and challengers provides a good framework for identifying the relationships between business functions as well as customers.

Figure 1. Identifying Stakeholders (Based on Lynda Bourne’s Model)

Talking to lots of people may not always identify the true motivations or sources of knowledge. There is also often a disconnect between who ought to be doing something and who actually is doing it. These two viewpoints can be confusing for the project manager. Figure 2, which is an adaption of Werner Ulrich’s work on boundary critique (wulrich.com/boundary_critique.), helps you to identify these two perspectives. It further also reinforces who has and should have a stake in the project.

At some stage, you should start to see the interconnections and appreciate the bigger picture. Figure 3 is one approach to visualising the emerging situation. While it uses frequency of interactions to identify level of influence you can modified it to just to show strength of influence. It can also show who shares what information. If time allows this simple tool can be developed further and become a social network diagram.

This systematic and holistic approach will also help identify those hidden stakeholders. For example, by asking questions about who a person interacts with on a weekly basis, stakeholders may be identified that were not evident from the office organisation chart. This social interaction can also reveal differing perceptions of issues as well as connections between stakeholders. Additionally, following this social trail can provide you with a richer appreciation of situation and reveal, otherwise key hidden stakeholders.

You could be the problem

A potential hindrance to effective identification is you as a project manager. We all have our own prejudices, own feelings, own views and perceptions. These traits can easily effect the way we perceive and make assumptions about stakeholders. We may think a particular stakeholder is a problem when it was our approach that created this situation. An awareness of your own situation and prejudices can mitigate this risk as can gathering second opinions.

Closing

So next time you start the process of identifying stakeholders, note that it’s best to take a holistic approach, look for the interconnections, map the relationships and take note as to where the real power to influence is located. Also acknowledge that your project is an abstract and is perceived differently by each stakeholder. It’s by managing people that you increase the likelihood of success. Additionally, embrace the fact that identification is iterative and dynamic and continues throughout the project.