Projects are like trains rolling down the tracks - Once they are put in motion and they are hard to stop. Stakeholder communication is one of the project manager's most important jobs because the stakeholders define the success of a project. The stakeholders must be identified, actively managed, and communicated with to ensure their buy-in to the final product, or else … [Read more...]
How to Develop a Stakeholder Engagement Plan
A Stakeholder Engagement Plan is a formal strategy to communicate with project stakeholders to achieve their support for the project. It specifies the frequency and type of communications, media, contact persons, and locations of communication events. It is created at the beginning of the project and updated frequently as stakeholder communication needs change. Parts … [Read more...]
Guide to Stakeholder Engagement
All projects have stakeholders. Like any area of life, no projects exist inside of a bubble. Although some come close, every project must have a project sponsor (as a minimum) who created the project and expects some sort of deliverable. But most projects have so many stakeholders that they must maintain a list in order to manage them all properly. In project … [Read more...]
What is a Stakeholder in Project Management?
In project management, a stakeholder is anyone who is affected by the project. This can be a real or perceived effect. Some are supportive and some are opposed to the project. Some have alot of influence and some have a little. Some are easy to persuade and some are not. But they all have a "stake" therefore project success and stakeholder management are integrally … [Read more...]
The Parts of a Stakeholder Register
Most project managers think that delivering a project on time and budget, within all of the specifications, makes for a successful project. This is mostly true, but not completely. You see, every project has stakeholders. A stakeholder is defined as any person or organization who's interests overlap with the project in any way. They can be supportive or opposed, … [Read more...]
Stakeholder Identification Techniques
It is surprisingly easy to forget about a minor project stakeholder who then exercises a disproportionately large influence over the project's success after they feel like they haven't been adequately consulted. It happens on countless projects every day. For this reason, project stakeholder management is used to obtain, or maintain, stakeholder support for the … [Read more...]
Project Stakeholder Management According to the PMBOK
All projects have stakeholders. If they didn't, the project wouldn't exist. As a minimum, the project sponsor is a stakeholder who is expecting to receive the project's deliverables. Usually there are expectations to receive them at a certain time, cost, quality level, or other criteria as well. The project manager must know who the stakeholders are and actively … [Read more...]
What, Exactly, is a Project Stakeholder?
In 2005, when Airbus was in the development phase of the A380 Superjumbo, they announced a delay in the delivery of the first jet due to internal software issues. One year later, another delivery delay was announced. This time, however, several executives lost their jobs as the share price tumbled 26%. Could the delay have been avoided? Maybe, but this demonstrates … [Read more...]
What is a Project Sponsor?
The project sponsor is a very important part of the project management organizational chart. In fact, every project has a sponsor. The project sponsor is one, and only one, level above the project manager. They do not manage the day to day operations of the project but they ensure the resources are in place, promote the project, and hold overall responsibility for the … [Read more...]
Project Management Plan – The 12 Core Components
Projects don't manage themselves. Professional project management requires the development of a plan that outlines how it will be managed. According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (section 4.2), the project management plan fulfills this purpose. Although it includes any and all items that define the management of the project, there are certain … [Read more...]