THEME 1: STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT

This theme covers a topic that is often undertaken poorly by project managers. Although many organizations promote the management of stakeholders in projects, this rarely translates into active stakeholder management. This is a mistake since this theme is extremely important and is one that occurs continuously during a project. If stakeholder management is undertaken successfully, the project will run more smoothly. Because this theme is significant it is returned to many times throughout this book.

Project managers often do not understand the benefits to be gained from good stakeholder management. They simply see it as the production of a stakeholder management plan: an activity to be completed in response to the life cycle guidance material. This lack of understanding is often shared by the reviewers of the stakeholder management plan. At the milestone review those present simply check that a stakeholder plan exists. Reviewers often do not concern themselves with the content of the plan. They are more concerned with the content of other documents such as the business case or the project schedule. You, however, must look at the deeper purpose of producing a stakeholder management plan. It should mean far more to you than simply a life cycle milestone requirement. A well-written plan should demonstrate your understanding of the relationships that will ultimately drive the success of the project.

Business planning

The most common reason given, by project managers, for not seriously attempting a stakeholder management plan is lack of available time. Project managers believe that other activities should take priority. They therefore choose to pay little attention to this area and they feel justified in this choice since many organizations accept this as the right decision. Organizations demonstrate this by allowing a project to pass a life cycle mandated milestone review without seeking evidence of stakeholder management. Organizations that do this are missing the fundamental reason for the stakeholder management plan.

The purpose of the stakeholder management plan is to ensure that the relationships between the principal people in the project have been discussed and the information flow between them agreed. Ironically, it often these principals who don't value a stakeholder management plan. They are the ones who allow the relaxation of the project milestone. They are also the people who complain that the relationships don't work and that they are not kept properly informed.

You do not need to follow this way of working. Instead you can follow a simple process that should result in successful stakeholder management. You can reap the benefits of a plan without the need for large amounts of your time. You can forestall the problems that will occur if stakeholders aren't managed properly.

Completing a simple form like the one shown in Table 1.1 is the first step in a simplified stakeholder management process. This form defines the various stakeholders and their involvement. It is likely that you will need less information for this form than the information required by a formal life cycle for a stakeholder management plan. This form aims to elicit only the key information that you will need. The content sought by the form should be viewed by you as the minimum required for good stakeholder management. It is helpful if this form is created in an electronic format such as a spreadsheet or a database. This allows data to be sorted easily.

Table 1.1: Stakeholder assessment form

Name (or Group )	Description	Involvement	Influence	Motivation	Supporter	Comments
A Jones	Project sponsor	High	High	Needs new customer booking system to meet overall business strategy	Yes
Z Nathan	Software director	High	High	Wants his department to be seen as a success and be able to gain personal glory	Sort of	Supports if he can share or take the glory
N Blem	Resource user	Medium	High	Is using some of the same resources for maintenance of existing system	Sort of	Fine as long as her project comes first - her bonus is based on it
S Farrell	System buyer	Low	Low	Job to ensure contract price is negotiated well	Agnostic	Doesn't care as long as his job isn't made difficult by project
Project B	Providing another system	Low	Medium	Providing another system as part of the overall company strategy	Sort of	Fine as long as it doesn't steal the glory from their system

Once completed the information on the form should be sorted, first by the supporter column, then by the influence column and finally by the involvement column. A picture should now form in your mind about the various people involved in the project. You should now be able to identify those people who don't support the project and its aims. In particular you should try to identify those who have a high level of influence or a high level of involvement but who don't support the project. Once these people are identified you must spend time with them building a strong working relationship. It is essential that you use this developing relationship as a method for understanding the reasons for the lack of support. You must then try to deal successfully with those reasons and in the process change a detractor into a supporter. The skills that you need here are discussed in Chapter 4, which explains the fundamental methods of building a team.

In its raw state it is not appropriate for this stakeholder management form to be seen by anyone other than you. It could be interpreted as being deliberately antagonistic towards people or groups within the project. Suggesting someone doesn't support a project that is likely to be of strategic importance to an organization can be very damaging to morale . Therefore you should resist the temptation to submit this form as a cut-down version of the required stakeholder management plan. If you do not have time to complete a stakeholder management plan it is better to submit simply nothing than submit this form in its raw state. However, translating this form into a stakeholder management plan should be a relatively simple task. You should edit the form, removing phrases such as ˜doesn't support the project' or ˜is always difficult about providing resources'. You must remember that the stakeholders are part of the project and as such they deserve to be treated with respect. Treating the stakeholders with respect regardless of their views will help to make the project successful.

In concluding this theme, it is worth emphasizing again the importance of stakeholder management. Strong relationships with the principals within a project are essential for a project manager. These relationships will not become strong on their own. Instead they will need to be nurtured and worked on throughout the project. The stakeholder management plan is simply a handy tool that can be used to work out and write down the stakeholders' needs. So at this stage if you choose to do nothing else on stakeholder management you should complete the form given for the main principals. This form should be kept private and you should review it every few days as the project initiation phase progresses.