Who Are These Stakeholders Anyway?

By Brenda Christie

You don't want your stakeholder to be like this -- the Big Bad Wolf.

There are good stakeholders and bad stakeholders.  They all matter one way or another because they have influence - influence over your project.

Important facts that you need to know and keep in mind are (1) you need to know what they want (2) they can have agendas in direct opposition to what the project is designed to do (3) they can control the purse strings.

So who are these stakeholders?  Well, they can be high-level senior managers; they can be clerks. Stakeholders can also be users of the system you're eliminating.  In short, stakeholders are any persons who would be impacted by what you are about to do.  You need to know who they are.

One way to identify them is to deconstruct the deliverable.  Answer questions such as who will use this system?  Who will use the product of this system.

Your team members can also be stakeholders and as such can make or break your project. So a good question to ask about them is What do they hope to get out of the project.  Hint:  It's not always money.  It can be a chance to use a new technology, perform a different role, be in the spotlight.

So in addition to identifying your stakeholders, it is also necessary to get to know them and know what motivates them. 

Stakeholders are all very important people,and they do influence the success or failure of your project.

Best,

Brenda Christie