The InfoWorks blog helps today’s business professional adapt to the ever-changing work world of the twenty-first century, where critical thinking skills and an openness to learn are paramount. With strong stakeholder support you gain a valuable ally who can help make your project a success. Stakeholders are people interested in your company, ranging from employees to loyal customers and investors. Why is stakeholder management important to project success? In the procurement environment, this is particularly true in driving change management and transformation. Each is an essential competence and a route to specialisation. Stakeholder management it seems to be very important than ever because of the increasingly globalizations and the interconnected nature of the modern world. For a well-rounded project manager, stakeholder engagement management should also be seen as vital. Following are some of the benefits of stakeholder management that can explain why it is given so much importance: Uncovers risks beforehand. Good project managers begin their projects by identifying stakeholders, understanding their role in the project, identifying their project-related expectations, and, relative to other stakeholders, confirming common expectations while resolving expectations that are in conflict. Using a project management tool with lots of different communication options means that you can tailor your notifications to each stakeholder’s unique needs, while still keeping a full audit history of every action and decision (which is especially handy when it comes to reporting time). As management guru Stephen Covey succinctly puts it, Your organisation is a complex ecosystem of multiple, interdependent parts both inside and outside its formal boundaries, and your stakeholders are its most important elements. What I have found is this: relative to their size, these projects pay less attention to stakeholders than smaller projects. Sharing this information with the team, and asking the team to help define the answers, is important if the project is to produce a real solution. For the end user of the project’s result, the overall goal is to receive the actual product or service and find that it meets their needs. What is stakeholder analysis? A stakeholder management system shall be implemented and maintained and the information about each stakeholder shall be updated in the system from time to time. With a nimble stakeholder management plan, a project team can appropriately gather input and feedback from stakeholders as well as keep those stakeholders informed. Identifying stakeholder expectations is critically important to the success of a project because: Understanding who your stakeholders are, and why their needs are important to the success of the project, is a key responsibility for any project manager, and a responsibility as well for all the people who are involved in project decisions. But there is something else that we need. Many people have – and continue to – refer to stakeholder engagement as ‘stakeholder management’. If that were always so, it would automatically follow — or at least easily be derived — from acceptable predicate definitions for 'stakeholder', 'analysis', and 'important'. Without strong stakeholder support requirements can be missed. Five Strategies for Successful Stakeholder Management. For example, at the initial stage of the project, the project sponsor may be wondering: is this worth the investment? Their power, interest, influence, expectations, and impact differ greatly. But there is something else that we need. Their information needs, inputs, and decision-making will vary over time, but will be broadly focused on seeing the project to a successful conclusion. In this topic, we are going to cover, why mapping is so important, and how the project manager utilizes different tools/templates for managing easily. The fact is that most projects involve a large number of stakeholders. Because we need people to get the project work done. But my experience suggests three distinct tiers of situation. Our projects affect lives, wellbeing and livelihoods. Stakeholders must play a central role in setting up priorities and objectives of water and sanitation initiatives in order to ensure relevance and appropriateness. The focus of stakeholder management isn’t to manage stakeholders but instead to … As an example, outside of business, you are a stakeholder in a family - your own, whether as a child, parent, or grandparent. Involve stakeholder in early stages of planning o e.g. For the organization, the overall goal is to capture the value of the challenging opportunity or pressing business need. What can you learn from your local supermarket. These needs involve establishing a sound relationship, feeling trusted and relevant, and understanding how their work is contributing to successfully meeting project objectives. The effort is often piecemeal. webinar, Thursday 28 June 2018. Many project managers feel their role with stakeholders is to corral them into obedience. Secondary customers may want to know: will the needs of other secondary customers take priority over mine? Our how-to articles, editorials, and thought pieces offer key insights in the areas of project management, leadership, entrepreneurship, consulting, freelancing, and the future of work. There remains a view that we need to ‘manage’ our stakeholders. SIgn Up for the latest news, information, research, and resources to expand your knowledge of business. Small projects are rarely run by full-time project managers. To communicate more effectively with stakeholders, you should: Stakeholder management is important because it is the lifeblood of effective project relationships. Projects stakeholders have an interest in the outcomes of your project. Want to know more? There may have been several unsuccessful attempts to do it the old way before someone with the clout to make it happen finally decides they have to make a project of it. In 2016, Mike founded OnlinePMCourses.com. Stakeholder management is important because it is the lifeblood of effective project relationships. 4 Reasons Why Project Stakeholder Management Is Important. When people have made an investment in what you’re doing, they’re naturally interested in how it does. If a project is small in size, the number of stakeholders can be small. Stakeholder management is a critical function of any project manager’s job. o If repositioning a stakeholder is required - determine what needs to be done to shift power? More than likely the project is not the first attempt to meet this need. Why is managing stakeholders so important in project management? Project stakeholders include those who care about the project or will be affected by it in some way: Primary project stakeholders are those who will be a part of the project for the duration. It is important to involve the stakeholders to get some insights about organization directions, its vision, goals, pipeline projects. Now I am all for simple tools; when applied vigorously, the results are excellent. Why is stakeholder management important. But no matter their role, all of your stakeholders matter, and managing stakeholders effectively can make a big difference to the success of your project. It is not part of their core responsibility of managing the project. Why Stakeholder Management is Vital to Successful Projects The various stakeholders, who are involved in your project, are a critical resource. Excellent stakeholder management removes and reduces some issues and then creates other issues in itself. That’s why I launched my Charter for Ethical Stakeholder Engagement. Consequently, it's important to identify the most influential stakeholders. The data-driven workplace of today has meant change for today’s leaders, and projects have taken on more importance as the business environment evolves. Many people rely on the results being successful. Why is stakeholder management important to project success? Project planning, risk management and change control are all seen as skilled project roles. Larger organisational projects often do have a full-time project manager. The next most important consideration for stakeholder engagement is an example of how the two tiers can cross over. Mike Clayton is an accomplished trainer, speaker and trusted advisor. Successful Delivery. This offers six commitments, which I hope you will join me in making. Sign-up for the latest news, information, research, and tools to expand your knowledge of business! However, stakeholder management is a very narrow way of looking at how we work with people on projects to achieve a common goal. The more active communication you have with your stakeholders, the better your risk management strategy will be. Stakeholder mapping is essential for the success of a project. Providing Expertise Good stakeholder management is vital to your business’s success. When you have mapped the stakeholders, it will help in better managing their expectations. The drivers to manage the stakeholders can be as below. Once the key stakeholders are determined, it's time to develop a stakeholder engagement plan and influence them at the right times. Stakeholder management is the central part of an organization’s effectiveness. The stakeholder management plan is a living document. As the person running that organization, you have an obligation to your stakeholders. The orientation of stakeholders may keep on changing as the project progresses and therefore effective stakeholder management system is important for positive results. Project sponsor: the person who is going to pay the bills and who has ultimate sign-off authority on the project, Primary customer: the primary user of the project’s outcomes or products, Secondary customers: others, both inside and outside of the organization, who will benefit from the project or who will be interacting with it, Project team: people who will be expected to carry out the project, including support personnel and outside consultants, Your stakeholders as a group will usually understand the situation better than you can, The situation may look quite different when viewed from different perspectives, Different stakeholders might have different expectations, You may risk rejection of your finished product if your customer feels his/her expectations and priorities haven’t been considered, Identify the intended recipients of the communication, recognizing that different stakeholders might require different information, and in different forms, Identify the issues of concern to each stakeholder, particularly concerns related to decisions each stakeholder must make, Determine which information should be communicated based on the specific information requirements of each stakeholder, Select a communication approach that will work most effectively with each stakeholder, Building project management experience in a down market ->, The coronavirus destroyed jobs. 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