Knowledge Area:Project Stakeholder Management

• How do you plan for stakeholder engagement?

Once the stakeholders are identified and listed in the stakeholder register, we also do a stakeholder analysis using power-interest grid to segregate them into different groups so that we can develop appropriate engagement strategies for each group of stakeholders. Below are the high level strategies we adopt to engage them:

• High Power – High Interest -   Manage closely
• High Power – Low Interest  - Keep satisfied
• Low Power – High Interest  - Keep informed
• Low Power – Low Interest  - Monitor

The above helps us to PRIORITIZE our ATTENTION and efforts accordingly.

• What are a stakeholder engagement matrix and the usage of the same?

While developing the stakeholder engagement strategies, it is also important to quickly check the current level of engagement of each stakeholder and the desired level of engagement of each of them for project success. Once we IDENTIFY the current level and desired level of engagement for each stakeholder, we can then define very specific actions which will help us to move the stakeholders to the desired level of engagement.

The stakeholders MAY fall in one of five levels of engagements such as “unaware”, “resistant”, “neutral”, “supportive” and “leading”.

Below is a matrix:

The above matrix once prepared, provides clarity to the team to define right actions and strategies for moving each of the stakeholders from their “Current” level to “Desired” level of engagement.