Project Stakeholders

 Project Stakeholders:

Project stakeholder refers to an individual, group, or organization, who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project. Simply put, you can say that a stakeholder is a person, group of people, or an organization that has any kind of interest in your project or is affected by its outcome either directly or indirectly. ll stakeholders are not equal and every stakeholder has different requirements and expectations. You should treat every stakeholder according to their requirements and expectations. Failing to do so can jeopardize your project’s success.

 

If you know every stakeholder, their needs, expectations, and requirements, it will increase the chance of the project’s success. If you miss any important stakeholder you may face many difficulties in the later stages of the project such as delay in the project, cost overrun, and in the most severe cases, the project may be terminated. Project stakeholders can be grouped into two categories: Internal and External

Internal: Internal stakeholders are internal to the organization. For example sponsor, project team, program manager, management, etc.

External: These stakeholders are external to the organization. For example customer or client,end-user of project’s outcome,  supplier, government, media, etc.

 

Some characteristics of project stakeholders are:

They may have different influence and varying level of responsibility during the project

They may play different roles

They may have a positive or negative influence on the project

They may be difficult to identify

Their lack of intervention may negatively influence the project (need for identification and involvement)

 

Stakeholders can be positive as well as negative

A positive stakeholder sees the project’s positive side and is benefitted by its success. These stakeholders help the project management team to successfully complete the project.

On the other hand, a negative stakeholder sees the negative outcome of the project and maybe negatively impacted by the project or its outcome. This type of stakeholder is less likely to help your project be completed successfully.