Project Assurance Resources
Managing Project Stakeholders
The information in this guide is intended for general purposes only. For more specific guidance around your organisationās projects, please get in touch with our team.
- Involve stakeholders from the start
- Ensure progress reporting reaches the right people
- Embed governance and decision making processes
- Plan which stakeholders are best to be involved in what parts of the project
- Donāt leave stakeholders in the dark about key decisions
- Practice empathy with stakeholders
- Protect the project from misaligned stakeholders
- Keep the scope and outcomes continually communicated
- Significant conflicts need to involve a steering committee or leadership
- Keep an open mind to stakeholdersā thoughts on the project
- Where to next?
Anyone involved with a project will come into contact with a stakeholder. At its core, a stakeholder is anyone who has a direct interest in the project. In fact, a team member of a delivery team is arguably a stakeholder. For many projects in large organisations, however, āstakeholderā is a catch all term used to describe any of the following:
- Senior people who have some interest in the project outcomes,
- People who own part of the business that will be impacted
- People outside the project and/or organisation who can influence the projectās success
- People outside the project and/or organisation who will receive (and hopefully benefit from) the projectās outcomes
- Anyone else who might need to be kept informed about the project
Relationship management in business isnāt an easy job. So when project managers have to juggle dozens of these relationships, itās extra important to be organised and confident in the status of the project. In this guide, weāre going to offer some tips for managing stakeholders to keep relationships positive and projects on track.
Involve stakeholders from the start
Keeping stakeholders involved from the beginning sets a tone for the rest of the project. They should be right across the purpose of the project, have direct buy-in to its benefits, and, crucially, understand where the project starts and finishes.
Ensure progress reporting reaches the right people
Reporting on the status of the project is a high priority task for any project manager. Through assessment of deliverables against milestones and budget, the PM can demonstrate what shape things are in. And conversely, a lack of this information puts an organisation in a precarious position of not knowing whether theyāre dealing with a success or failure. Reporting is essential for decision making by not only the project management office but the steering committee and leadership.
Reporting as to the achievements and progress on the project should also hit stakeholders in some format. This may not be as detailed as the granular gantt chart and project expenditure, but rather summarise where things are at and be digestible to a time poor senior staff member. Some things you may wish to include in reporting to stakeholders:
- Achievements within that month/time period.
- Milestones of the project and how the projectās tracking.
- Challenges on the project and what help you may need.
- Reiterating the scope and desired outcomes.
- Heads up on any changes made to scope.
Reporting is as much about a stakeholder being considered as it is them being informed. It will go a long way to keep the relationship strong.
Embed governance and decision making processes
Putting together project governance takes a bit of time; risk assessment, sign off processes and accountabilities are just some of the tasks required. But the time this takes pales in comparison to the hours, days and sometimes weeks worth of debate around a particular feature or decision made within a project where stakeholders feel inclined to challenge the plan in the absence of clear parameters.
Organisations should do the due diligence and build their projects on a strong foundation. In our research via the Project Health Check, we know that 40% of responses felt governance was not working well. So even if governance does exist in your project, make sure it will stand up to the pressures of multiple stakeholders.
Plan which stakeholders are best to be involved in what parts of the project
A RASCI model can indicate where certain stakeholders should be consulted or involved. Part of your broader project plan should outline at which points stakeholders are needed, and this should be reviewed and acknowledged prior to delivery getting underway.
For example, you may be rolling out a new intranet project. The stakeholder in charge of internal communications may need to be involved at the start, during user testing and leading up to full roll out. They wonāt be needed when the development team is deep in code and negotiation which features are in or out of scope.
Map stakeholders to the projectās requirements, and make sure these are communicated effectively.
Donāt leave stakeholders in the dark about key decisions
But worse still for the project, a stakeholder who may otherwise represent the interests of part of the business can miss important information that theyād be able to provide valuable direction on. Stakeholders arenāt a sign off process; theyāre important parts of the projectās success.
Itās far easier to include stakeholders who can then opt out of certain communications at their discretion.
Practice empathy with stakeholders
When disagreements or conflict arises, itās always a good idea to consider the stakeholderās perspective. Understand that their viewpoint is likely tied to their own set of key performance indicators (KPIs), which in turn are KPIs of their business unit. A project that may impact these KPIs negatively is going to be an issue. Sometimes the resolution will be minor with more explanation, but in other circumstances it will need to be worked through with senior leadership.
While thereās no space for rudeness or hostility in a well-functioning organisation, being mindful and empathetic to stakeholdersā concerns gives you more chance of building a stronger long term relationship. Stay true to the governance framework and scope, but donāt neglect to be human as well!
Protect the project from misaligned stakeholders
The challenge for project teams exists when seemingly āminorā requests by stakeholders directly of the project team start to pile up and derail the project. This is where the project manager needs to protect their team by empowering them to redirect such requests back in via the project management function. It can be tempting to placate a āsimpleā request. In large organisations these combined cause real issues.
Keep the scope and outcomes continually communicated
When it comes to a disagreement about a deliverable, this communication will help give familiar context to those stakeholders in question.
Significant conflicts need to involve a steering committee or leadership
Involving senior leadership isnāt a negative thing in these cases; itās a means to ensure that decisions are being made with full support of the business and awareness of potential impacts.
Keep an open mind to stakeholdersā thoughts on the project
Where to next?
Read our other project resources:
Setting project milestones
Staying on track isnāt just a matter of delivering on time, but controlling costs too. We offer some useful tips when setting project milestones.
Learn More >>
How to avoid project failure
Project failure is something every organisation wants to avoid. We touch on some of the approaches to preventing things going wrong.
Learn More >>
Identifying project risks
Risks exist in all organisations. Itās how we prepare, adapt and navigate these risks that makes projects successful. Read our guide on spotting and dealing with risks to a project.
Learn More >>
Understanding project governance
All the structure and processes around how a project is delivered can mean the difference between a successful project or not. Learn what governance is and how it can help.
Learn More >>
What causes scope creep
Scope creep affects every project manager or project team member at some point in their career. In this guide, we explore what some of the causes are.
Learn More >>
Managing project stakeholders
In this guide, we offer some tips for managing stakeholders to keep relationships positive and projects on track.
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