Step 1. Identify Your Project Stakeholders

Overview

What would happen if, in the measure phase of DMAIC, you didn’t identify the data you need, create a data-collection plan, and then implement that plan? What if you just asked random people to give you whatever data they thought might be useful? That wouldn’t be an effective approach, would it?

It’s no different with getting support and cooperation for your project. You can’t just barrel ahead and hope for the best. The key to getting support and cooperation from people outside the team is to think in advance about what you need, and from whom ... and then plan on how to get it.

We call this approach stakeholder management, and it consists of three steps:

1. Identify your project “stakeholders.”

2. Analyze them.

3. Create a plan to get their support.