Identification and Analysis

Who is a stakeholder

Anyone who affects the project or is affected by it. The definition is deliberately broad, because the stakeholders who cause difficulty are usually the ones nobody thought to list.

Categories worth working through systematically: the sponsor and governance bodies; the delivery team; end users of the result; managers whose operations are affected; functions whose approval is required — legal, security, finance, procurement, health and safety; suppliers and contractors; customers; regulators; unions and employee representatives; other project managers competing for the same resources; and, where relevant, the public and local community.

Analysis

For each stakeholder, establish:

• Interest — how much the outcome matters to them.
• Influence — their ability to affect the project, formally or informally.
• Attitude — supportive, neutral, sceptical or opposed.
• What they want from the project, and what they are worried about.
• What they need from you — information, involvement, reassurance, a decision.
• What you need from them — resources, approvals, information, advocacy.

The influence and interest grid

A simple and effective tool, producing four groups:

• High influence, high interest — manage closely. Frequent contact, genuine involvement in decisions.
• High influence, low interest — keep satisfied. They can stop the project and are not paying attention. Enough contact that they are never surprised, and not so much that they disengage.
• Low influence, high interest — keep informed. Often the end users, who care most and can affect adoption even if they cannot affect decisions.
• Low influence, low interest — monitor. Their position can change.

Two cautions. Influence is not the same as seniority — an experienced operator whose opinion the workforce trusts can have more practical influence than a director. And positions move: a low-interest stakeholder becomes highly interested the moment the project affects them directly, which is usually later than the project expected.

Informal influence

Organisations have informal networks that the chart does not show: people who are consulted, who are trusted, who have been there longest, who know how things actually work. Identifying them is difficult and valuable, because a project that has the formal approvals and not the informal support proceeds slowly and encounters obstacles that nobody will name.

Keeping it current

Stakeholder analysis is not an initiation exercise. People change roles, new stakeholders appear as the project touches new areas, and attitudes shift in response to what the project does. Review it at each phase and after any significant event.