Which stakeholders have high influence as well as high interest in the project?
Every project in every business has its stakeholders. These are people who are not necessarily working on the project but have an objective to meet from the outcome of the project. Stakeholders can be internal to the company such as the CEO or the Marketing Manager and they can be external to the company such as clients or shareholders. Show
Stakeholder analysis enables the project team to track the interests of stakeholders and allows them to determine the priorities when it comes to stakeholder management. In some organizations the internal stakeholders will have a disproportionate influence on the design process thanks to hierarchical management structures and it can be very useful to ensure that the political as well as business objectives of these stakeholders are satisfied whilst delivering the best possible user experience from your design project. Author/Copyright holder: Grochim. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 Stakeholders can be a very diverse group and the better you know your stakeholders – the easy it is to manage their expectations. Conducting Stakeholder AnalysisStakeholders are any person or organization that has the capacity to be positively or negatively impacted by the project carry out and outcomes as well as any person or organization that has the capacity to impact on that project. These may be (but aren’t limited to):
They can generally be put into three simple categories of stakeholder:
You can brain storm in a team to determine a complete picture of the stakeholders in a project. You may also use the organizational hierarchy chart and any other data sources to enhance this picture. The purpose of this exercise is to develop a list of stakeholders with the objective of fostering cooperation between them and the project team – to ensure that the project is complete successfully and meets the objectives of the stakeholders. Author/Copyright holder: Luc Galoppin. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY 2.0 A simple and direct stakeholder map that enables management of
stakeholders. Stakeholder MappingThere are many different ways to map stakeholders and their influence on the project. These may be derived from particular project management approaches or indeed from historical organizational behavior. However, perhaps the simplest tool is the one proposed by Mitchell, Agle et al. in 1997 which examines the power and influence of each of stakeholder. The idea of this exercise is to decide which stakeholders require the efforts of the project manager at any given point in time. The way to conduct this map is to take a sheet of paper and divide it into four equal quarters (split vertically and horizontally on the paper) with a y axis tracking the power of the stakeholder and the x axis tracking their level of interest. You can then label each quadrant based on the following:
Author/Copyright holder: Zirguezi. Copyright terms and licence: CC0 1.0 The classic breakdown of stakeholders as suggested by Mitchell, Agell et al. back in 1997. This model is extremely simple to employ though it requires that the project manager by familiar with the stakeholders and their interests and power over the project. If this is not known the project manager will need to determine this prior to conducting the analysis. The project manager should regularly review their stakeholder map and see if stakeholders have changed positions (e.g. gained or lost power or interest). They can then refocus their attentions as necessary. The Take AwayStakeholder mapping is a project management tool that allows project managers to understand who their stakeholders are and to what extent they will need information and management during the course of the project. It recognizes that the relationship between stakeholders and the project is not static and requires regular revisiting to ensure that the project manager is diverting their energies to the right people at the right time. ResourcesMitchell, R. K., B. R. Agle, and D.J. Wood. (1997). "Toward a Theory of Stakeholder Identification and Salience: Defining the Principle of Who and What really Counts." in: Academy of Management Review 22(4): 853 - 888. Alternative forms of stakeholder mapping are explored here - http://www.policy-powertools.org/Tools/Understanding/docs/stakeholder_influence_mapping_tool_english.pdf Hero Image: Author/Copyright holder: Will
Richardson . Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC 2.0 Which type of stakeholder have the high power and high interest?High Power, High Interest.
The stakeholders in the upper-right corner of the grid are those that you must not only keep satisfied, but also actively engage with and consult. These are the “big dog” stakeholders that can/will exert major influence over your project on a regular basis.
What is stakeholder influence and interest?Stakeholder Interest-Influence Grid
This is a useful map to help understand the need for communication and potential resistance to change. Interest indicates stakeholders' likely concerns, whilst Influence indicates their ability resist your recommendation or change.
Which type of stakeholders have the highest?Primary stakeholders (also known as key stakeholders) have the highest level of interest in the outcome of a project because they are directly affected by the outcome. They actively contribute to a project.
Which stakeholder is more critical the one with high power or the one with high interest?High power – High interest: these stakeholders are likely to be decision makers and have the biggest impact on the project success. You need to keep these stakeholders close, to manage their expectations. High power – Low Interest: these stakeholders need to be kept in the loop with what is happening on the project.
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