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COMMUNICATING WITH STAKEHOLDERS 135

communication, especially as it applies to project and workforce management.
And we have taken note of the expansion of the concept of stakeholders, recog-
nizing that whether your project has been successful will depend, at least in part,
on the perceptions of the stakeholders of what was actually accomplished.

Thus far, we have discussed the role-based needs of two segments of the stake-
holder community: the management groups and the participant groups. We con-
clude this chapter with the needs of the remaining stakeholders.

Other Stakeholders

As noted earlier, the universe of people who care about or impact projects is quite
large. This extends well beyond the involved management groups and the directly
involved participants. More important, these other stakeholders can be as impor-
tant to success as the management and participant groups. One such group is the
Owner of the project. This might be an external client, or an internal sponsor. It is
the person who represents the organization that is directly or indirectly paying for
the work and has (most likely) the greatest stake in its successful completion.
Other internal operations that might have more than a passing interest in the on-
going projects would include the Human Resources function, Accounting, and
Information Systems. And many organizations depend on external functions as
well, such as Professional Services Organizations, Outsourcing groups, and Busi-
ness-to-Business alliances.

Communicating with Stakeholders

One of the biggest causes of project failure, especially in Information Technology
projects, is the lack of continued participation and communication by this more
remote segment of the project community. Actually, it seems ludicrous to refer to
the owner or sponsor as remote. Yet, in practice, these people are often out of the
loop. We accept the project and then limit communication to brief, disconnected,
periodic reports.

One thing that managers and clients despise is surprises. But we tend to go
merrily along our way, reporting that all is well, until we can’t hide the slippages,
overruns, and technical problems. Then we suddenly break the news that the
client will not get what was expected. In most projects, problems such as these
can be expected. If frequent communication and disclosure is maintained, these
problems become part of a natural, shared resolution process. But the sudden
shift from a state of “not to worry” to a state of “all hell has broken loose” leads to
a breakdown of trust.

This regretful state can be avoided. A key to doing this is communication. Such