13.1 Identify Stakeholders

Description: the process of identifying project stakeholders regularly and analyzing and documenting relevant information regarding their interests, involvement, interdependencies, influence, and potential impact on project success.

Key benefit: it enables the project team to identify the appropriate focus for engagement of each stakeholder or groups of stakeholders.

Frequency: periodically throughout the project as needed. It should be performed at the start of each phase and when a significant change in the project is repeated.

Process / Asset Group	Input	The Process	Output	Process / Asset Group
4.1 Develop Project Charter	Project charter	13.1 Identify Stakeholders	Requirements management plan	Project Management Plan
Project Management Plan	Communication management plan		Communications management plan
	Stakeholder management plan		Risk management plan
Project Documents	Change log		Stakeholder management plan
	Issue log		Assumption log	Project Documents
	Requirements documentation		Issue log
Business Documents	Business case		Risk register
	Benefits management plan		Change requests	4.6 Perform Integrated Change Control
12.2 Conduct Procurements	Agreements
Enterprise / Organization	Enterprise environmental factors
	Organizational process assets

13.1.1 Inputs

13.1.1.1 Project Charter

Identifies the key stakeholder list and contains information about the responsibilities of the stakeholders.

13.1.1.2 Business Documents

• Business case. Identifies the project objectives and identifies an initial list of stakeholders affected by the project.
• Benefits management plan. Describes the expected plan for realizing the benefits claimed in the business case. It may identify the individuals and groups that will benefit from the delivery of the outcomes of the project and are thus considered as stakeholders.

13.1.1.3 Project Management Plan

The project management plan is not available when initially identifying stakeholders. Later:

• Communications management plan. Communications and stakeholder engagement are strongly linked. Information included in the communications management plan is a source of knowledge about the project's stakeholders.
• Stakeholder engagement plan. Identifies the management strategies and actions required to effectively engage stakeholders.

13.1.1.4 Project Documents

On later phases:

• Change log. The change log may introduce a new stakeholder or change the nature of an existing stakeholder's relationship to the project.
• Issue log. Issues that may introduce new stakeholders to the project or change the type of participation of existing stakeholders.
• Requirements documentation. Can provide information on potential stakeholders.

13.1.1.5 Agreements

The parties of an agreement are project stakeholders. The agreement can contain references to additional stakeholders.

13.1.1.6 Enterprise Environmental Factors

Include:

• Organizational culture, political climate, and governance framework;
• Government or industry standards (regulations, product standards, and codes of conduct);
• Global, regional, or local trends and practices or habits; and
• Geographic distribution of facilities and resources.

13.1.1.7 Organizational Process Assets

• Stakeholder register templates and instructions,
• Stakeholder registers from previous projects, and
• Lessons learned repository with information about the preferences, actions, and involvement of stakeholders.

13.1.2 Tools and Techniques

13.1.2.1 Expert Judgement

Topics:

• Understanding the politics and power structures in the organization,
• Knowledge of the environment and culture of the organization and other affected organizations including customers and the wider environment,
• Knowledge of the industry or type of project deliverable, and
• Knowledge of individual team member contributions and expertise.

13.1.2.2 Data Gathering

Include:

• Questionnaires and surveys. Questionnaires and surveys can include one-on-one reviews, focus group sessions, or other mass information collection techniques.
• Brainstorming. Brainstorming as used to identify stakeholders can include both brainstorming and brain writing.
  • Brainstorming. A general data-gathering and creativity technique that elicits input from groups such as team members or subject matter experts.
  • Brain writing. A refinement of brainstorming that allows individual participants time to consider the question(s) individually before the group creativity session is held. The information can be gathered in face-to-face groups or using virtual environments supported by technology.

13.1.2.3 Data Analysis

Include:

• Stakeholder analysis. Stakeholder analysis results in a list of stakeholders and relevant information such as their positions in the organization, roles on the project, “stakes,” expectations, attitudes (their levels of support for the project), and their interest in information about the project. Stakeholders’ stakes can include but are not limited to a combination of:
  • Interest. A person or group can be affected by a decision related to the project or its outcomes.
  • Rights (legal or moral rights). Legal rights, such as occupational health and safety, may be defined in the legislation framework of a country. Moral rights may involve concepts of protection of historical sites or environmental sustainability.
  • Ownership. A person or group has a legal title to an asset or a property.
  • Knowledge. Specialist knowledge, which can benefit the project through more effective delivery of project objectives, organizational outcomes, or knowledge of the power structures of the organization.
  • Contribution. Provision of funds or other resources, including human resources, or providing support for the project in more intangible ways, such as advocacy in the form of promoting the objectives of the project or acting as a buffer between the project and the power structures of the organization and its politics.
• Document analysis. Assessing the available project documentation and lessons learned from previous projects to identify stakeholders and other supporting information.

13.1.2.4 Data Representation

Stakeholder mapping/representation. Categorizing stakeholders:

• Power/interest grid, power/influence grid, or impact/influence grid. Each of these techniques supports a grouping of stakeholders according to their level of authority (power), level of concern about the project's outcomes (interest), ability to influence the outcomes of the project (influence), or ability to cause changes to the project's planning or execution. Useful for small projects or for projects with simple relationships between stakeholders and the project, or within the stakeholder community itself.
• Stakeholder cube. This is a refinement of the grid models previously mentioned. This model combines the grid elements into a three-dimensional model that can be useful to project managers and teams in identifying and engaging their stakeholder community. It provides a model with multiple dimensions that improves the depiction of the stakeholder community as a multidimensional entity and assists with the development of communication strategies.
• Salience model. Describes classes of stakeholders based on assessments of their power (level of authority or ability to influence the outcomes of the project), urgency (need for immediate attention, either time-constrained or relating to the stakeholders’ high stake in the outcome), and legitimacy (their involvement is appropriate). There is an adaptation of the salience model that substitutes proximity for legitimacy (applying to the team and measuring their level of involvement with the work of the project). The salience model is useful for large complex communities of stakeholders or where there are complex networks of relationships within the community. It is also useful in determining the relative importance of the identified stakeholders.
• Directions of influence. Classifies stakeholders according to their influence on the work of the project or the project team itself. Stakeholders can be classified in the following ways:
  • Upward (senior management of the performing organization or customer organization, sponsor, and steering committee),
  • Downward (the team or specialists contributing knowledge or skills in a temporary capacity),
  • Outward (stakeholder groups and their representatives outside the project team, such as suppliers, government departments, the public, end-users, and regulators), or
  • Sideward (the peers of the project manager, such as other project managers or middle managers who are in competition for scarce project resources or who collaborate with the project manager in sharing resources or information).
• Prioritization. Prioritizing stakeholders may be necessary for projects with a large number of stakeholders, where the membership of the stakeholder community is changing frequently, or when the relationships between stakeholders and the project team or within the stakeholder community are complex.

13.1.2.5 Meetings

To develop an understanding of significant project stakeholders. They can take the form of facilitation workshops, small group guided discussions, and virtual groups using electronics or social media technologies to share ideas and analyze data.

13.1.3 Outputs

13.1.3.1 Stakeholder Register

Includes:

• Identification information. Name, organizational position, location and contact details, and role on the project.
• Assessment information. Major requirements, expectations, potential for influencing project outcomes, and the phase of the project life cycle where the stakeholder has the most influence or impact.
• Stakeholder classification. Internal/external, impact/influence/power/interest, upward/ downward/ outward/ sideward, or any other classification model chosen by the project manager.

13.1.3.2 Change Requests

13.1.3.3 Project Management Plan Updates

Include:

• Requirements management plan. Newly identified stakeholders can impact how requirements activities will be planned, tracked, and reported.
• Communications management plan. Stakeholder communication requirements and agreed-upon communications strategies are recorded in the communications management plan.
• Risk management plan. Where stakeholder communication requirements and agreed-upon communications strategies affect the approach to managing risk on the project, this is reflected in the risk management plan.
• Stakeholder engagement plan. Agreed-upon communications strategies for identified stakeholders are recorded in the stakeholder engagement plan.

13.1.3.4 Project Documents Updates

Include:

• Assumption l og. Much of the information about the relative power, interest, and engagement of stakeholders is based on assumptions. This information is entered into the assumption log. Additionally, any constraints associated with interacting with specific stakeholders are entered as well.
• Issue log. New issues raised as a result of this process are recorded in the issue log.
• Risk register. New risks identified during this process are recorded in the risk register and managed using the risk management processes.

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