Identifying The Project Stakeholders
One technique for dealing effectively with the project's external environment
is to prioritize the required stakeholder linkages by conducting a stakeholder
analysis. Such an analysis would be designed first to identify all the potential
stakeholders who might have an impact on the project, and then to determine their
relative ability to influence it.
Stakeholder Groupings
Project stakeholders may be recognized in any of the following groupings:
- Those who are directly related to the project, for example suppliers of inputs,
consumers of outputs, and managers of the project process
- Those who have influence over the physical, infra- structural, technological,
commercial/financial/ socioeconomic, or political/legal conditions
- Those who have a hierarchical relationship to the project such as government
authorities at local, regional and national levels, and
- Those individuals, groups and associations, who have vested interests, sometimes
quite unrelated to the project, but who see it as an opportunity to pursue their
own ends.
Stakeholder Categories
Having identified the various stakeholders, each may be assigned to a category
according to their relative ability to influence the project. Three categories
are envisaged, namely:
- Those who are controllable
- Those who are influencable, and
- Those who need to be appreciated
Within each category, each stakeholder may then be further rated by degree
of importance according to their ability to influence the project. Appropriate
members of the project team can then prioritize their efforts accordingly to
maintain the necessary stakeholder linkages, and thus give rise to the best chances
of ultimate project success. If the project is large enough, or the stakeholder
linkages are sufficiently intense, the project team's efforts may be assigned
to a specific group within the project team. Enter Project Public Relations.
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Effective
External Project Management Strategies
