Stakeholder Management

The final process in project communications management is managing the stakeholders. The inputs into managing stakeholders are the communication management plan and organizational process assets. The communication plan will show the stakeholder goals and objectives. In addition, the type and level of communication to be executed during the project will be a topic in the stakeholder management plan.

The tools and techniques of managing stakeholders are communication methods and issue logs.

There are dozens of possible communication methods for managing stakeholders. These will depend on the needs of the stakeholders. In addition, different methods will be used if all the project team members are not located in the same place (collocated). The first choice in communicating information with stakeholders will always be face-to-face. In-person meetings should be used as much as possible. However, there are times when these are not practical. For instance, some of your team may be in Europe, some in the U.S., and some in Asia. Obviously, face-to-face meetings with the whole team in this case will be a problem. It is always a good policy, if not always possible or practical, to have at least one meeting with all the stakeholders present. This is sometimes bypassed through the use of videoconferencing. Although video-conferencing is not as good as face-to-face communication, it can be very useful.

If face-to-face, in-person meetings are not practical, all sorts of choices are available for communicating between project team members. Cell phones, email, websites, and written communication sent by snail mail are just some of the available methods. You need to balance the practicality of the communication method with the usefulness of the method to make the communication system work.

Issue logs constitute an extremely important tool in project management. As each issue occurs, as it will on any project, you should list it in the log and then number it. After this, state what can be done about the issue and if necessary who can resolve the issue. This last part, which is called escalating the issue, is an extremely important part of the issue log. Issues between two people with lateral positions may continue to remain unresolved unless you note that someone in the organization has the authority to solve the issue. Listing this person will help you control issues and bring them to closure.

If the issue is resolved, note that but still keep the issue in the log. Do not erase any issues that have occurred. These are as much a part of the lessons learned of the project as any other information. Do not reuse any numbers for issues. After an issue has been given an ID number, that number cannot be used again. By doing this, you will avoid confusion.

Q.	The best type of communication method for passing information to stakeholders is _____________.
		A.	Smoke signals
		B.	Face-to-face
		C.	Email
		D.	Telephone

The answer is B. Although this type of communication is not always possible or practical, it remains the best possible way to communicate to stakeholders.

Q.	The key factor in closing issues is the person to whom you will ________ the issue in order to resolve it.
		A.	Communicate
		B.	Write
		C.	Send
		D.	Escalate

The answer is D. You must have a person that can resolve the issue between two laterals. That person must have the authority to make a decision, and in order to get that decision, you escalate the issue to him or her.

The outputs from managing stakeholders are resolved issues, approved change requests, updates of organizational process assets, and updates on the project management plan. The issues log is where the resolved issues are archived. Whether these issues are internal to the organization or involve outside people, the log must be kept so that the resolution of issues is permanently kept on record.