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A complete list of stakeholders varies by project and by organization. The larger and
more complex your project is, the more stakeholders you will have. Sometimes you will
have far more stakeholders than you want or need, especially on high-profile projects.
We recommend you define who you think the stakeholders are on the project and
review the list with your project sponsor. The project sponsor is often in a better
position to identify those stakeholders who are influential people in the organization.
These types of stakeholders can make or break your project, and your sponsor can
assist you in identifying their needs.
As you can see, your project team members and stakeholders represent a wide range of
functional areas and a diverse set of wants and needs relative to your project. To keep
track of everyone, you may want to develop a stakeholder matrix. You’ll look at that
next.
The Stakeholder Matrix
If you have a large project with multiple stakeholders, it may be appropriate to create a
stakeholder matrix to help you keep track of everyone. You can use a simple
spreadsheet to create the matrix. At a minimum, it should include a list of all the
project stakeholders with the following information for each one:
Name
Department
Contact information
Role on the project
Needs, concerns, and interests regarding the project
Level of involvement on the project
Level of influence over the project
Notes for your own reference about future interactions with this stakeholder,
political issues to be aware of, or individual quirks you want to remember about
this stakeholder
Since project stakeholders can move on and off the project at different times, it’s
important that the project manager reviews and updates the matrix periodically.
The Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation
Your organization is considering implementing an enterprise resource planning
(ERP) system. This system will handle all the back-office functions for your
organization, including procurement, human resources, materials inventory, fleet
management, budgeting, and accounting. Currently, your organization has 14
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