Project Stakeholder Management

Therefore, when the business undertakes a project, there is need to manage all these groups of people efficiently and effectively. This process of managing stakeholders is known us project stakeholder management. Therefore, stakeholder management is the systematic process of identifying, analyzing, planning and implementing actions that are designed to ensure engagement of stakeholders during the lifecycle of a project. A project is considered successful if it achieves or exceeds the expectations of the stakeholders. The management of stakeholders is a significant step towards attaining the project's objectives. Further, there is a general increase in the perception of success of a project when the stakeholders' expectations are well managed. Therefore, since all businesses want their projects to succeed, then they continuously engage the correct stakeholders up to the last phase of the project.

Stakeholder analysis When a business has a project, there are many parties both internal and external who have interest in the same project. In many cases, the interests of these people in the project tend to change during the different phases of the project's lifecycle. This may cause unforeseeable technical changes which were assumed to be stable. After grouping the stakeholders, managers have to ascertain again whether all stakeholders have been captured in their list, whether all advocates and opponents of the project have been identified, whether the interests of vulnerable individuals and groups have been identified and whether there are any new stakeholders that might emerge during the project's lifecycle. Stakeholders can be categorized as primary, secondary and tertiary. Primary stakeholders are the individuals who experience the impacts of the project directly, and they are the beneficiaries of the project.

Secondary stakeholders are the intermediaries who execute the project like the advisers, professionals, experts, etc. External or tertiary stakeholders are the policy and decision makers, and they include government bodies, senior civil servants politicians, etc. People with high power but less interest have to be satisfied. Enough work should be put in place to keep this group of people satisfied. However, the effort should not be too much to the extent of boring them (Morris, 2016). People with low power but high interest should be given information as much as possible. This is to ensure no issues arise and involving these people adds value to the project since they can always help with the details of the project. Stakeholder Register After analyzing stakeholder, there is need to record their information in a stakeholder register.

Thus a stakeholder registers in a document in project management that contains project stakeholders' information. The register identifies the organizations, groups, and individuals that have interests or are involved in the project. The register may contain names, titles, powers, roles, requirements, interests, expectations, etc. Below is a sample of a stakeholder register. Managing stakeholder engagements is viewed as the process of working and communicating with the stakeholders with the aim of meeting the expected outcomes and solve any issues that may arise. Further, managing stakeholder engagement requires project managers to systematically execute various activities with the stakeholders throughout the lifetime of a project. This process gives project managers the opportunity to gain more support from stakeholders and the same time reduce resistance.

Controlling stakeholder engagement Controlling stakeholder engagement is the process through which the project managers monitor the overall relationship between stakeholders and adjusting the plans and strategies for engaging the same stakeholders. This process requires the collection of data and the input of stakeholders since they play a crucial role. Other software includes the order entry systems Conclusion Stakeholders play a crucial role in determining whether a project succeeds or fails. Managing the stakeholders is therefore at the core of the business and the project managers since it is one of the steps that are required to ensure the project succeeds. It is essential to understand the various stakeholders, their interests, and powers since this will enable the project managers to know who they are dealing with and how they will deal with them.