Summary

Plan the involvement of identified stakeholders.

Description

Stakeholders are identified from all phases of the project lifecycle by identifying the people and functions that should be represented in the project and describing their relevance and the degree of interaction for project activities. A two-dimensional matrix with stakeholders along one axis and project activities along the other axis is a convenient format for accomplishing this identification. Relevance of the stakeholder to the activity in a particular project phase and the amount of interaction expected would be shown at the intersection of the project phase activity axis and the stakeholder axis.

For inputs of stakeholders to be useful, careful selection of relevant stakeholders is necessary. For each major activity, identify stakeholders who are affected by the activity and those who have expertise that is needed to conduct the activity. This list of relevant stakeholders will probably change as the project moves through phases of the project lifecycle. It is important, however, to ensure that relevant stakeholders in the latter phases of the lifecycle have early input to requirements and design decisions that affect them.

 

Examples of the type of material that should be included in a plan for stakeholder interaction include the following:
  • List of all relevant stakeholders
  • Rationale for stakeholder involvement
  • Relationships among stakeholders
  • Resources (e.g., training, materials, time, funding) needed to ensure stakeholder interaction
  • Schedule for the phasing of stakeholder interaction
  • Roles and responsibilities of relevant stakeholders with respect to the project, by project lifecycle phase
  • Relative importance of the stakeholder to the success of the project, by project lifecycle phase


Implementing this specific practice relies on shared or exchanged information with the previous Plan Needed Knowledge and Skills specific practice.

Typical Work Products



  1. Stakeholder involvement plan