Stakeholder Discovery – Minimize Surprises!

As many experienced project managers know, identifying, and constantly communicating to all the possible stakeholders can add to the successful implementation of your project. A missing influential stakeholder, can stall or kill a project.

During an exercise of discovery, it is possible to identify additional stakeholders for a project.

Scenario

In the case of an automobile insurance claims management system, obvious stakeholders would be the end claimant , as well as the claims operations team . Other groups or personnel involved would be the Finance department, since checks for auto parts and labor repair would be produced by the Finance system.

The Sales department could also be another stakeholder, for an opportunity to sell additional coverage for frequent claimants. The company’s Marketing department may want to funnel customer information into its Customer Relationship Management system for future client communications.

Process

Conduct a brainstorming session to determine all the possible stakeholders, with the output of a roles and responsibilities document, providing the project manager a list of communication requirements. An example of information in the document is the sponsor of the project may be a vice president, whose updates are required weekly. The actual project team, with deliverables every six to eight weeks, may require daily status meetings.

Communication Channels Formula
There is a formula, provided in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) used to determine the lines of communication required for the number of stakeholders in the project.

N(N-2) / 2
With 10 stakeholders, the formula is 10 (10-2) / 2 which equals 40 communication channels. Compare to three stakeholders, 3(3-2) / 2 equaling 1.5 communication channels.

Communication Technologies

In a scenario with multiple stakeholders, the use of email, could be supplemented with online browser-supported project schedule dashboards, corporate social networking applications, Twitter updates, Texting updates, and of course, using the phone, and face-to-face.

Some people prefer quick text updates to voice conversations, etc. Also the standards of communication must be understood. For example, using Reply All in an email may or may not be fine, or efficient.

Since 90% of the project manager’s job is communication, thorough stakeholder discovery can minimize surprises to the delivery of your project.

Project Management: Constraints Management in Planning

In a project, the planning of tasks, with associated estimates, resources, assignments and dependencies, can require a good amount of critical thinking. Introducing constraints adds even more thought, and can increase the maintenance of the project schedule.

There are many types of constraints, with varying degrees of flexibilities. In a project, many tasks can start ASAP (As Soon As Possible). For example, after cement has been poured for the base of a house, and has dried, then the wood framing construction can begin As Soon As Possible.

There may be an instance when, because of timing, tasks may start As Late As Possible. For example, back to the construction of the house, carpet may be installed as Late As Possible because the owner does not want anyone walking on it before the owner actually moves in.

There are other constraints such as Start No Earlier Than (SNET), Finish No Earlier Than (FNET), Start No Later Than (SNLT), and Finish No Later Than (FNLT), Must Start On (MSO), and Must Finish On (MFO). Packages such as Microsoft’s Project, provides these constraints for enhanced flexibility.

Many prefer to minimize the amount of constraints in a project since they require additional attention. Having Task B start As Soon As Possible, following Task A, is visually easy to see. If Task B has a constraint of Start No Earlier Than (SNET), it involves another dimension, time, on top of a dependency, which requires explanation.

Limiting the project schedule to simpler dependencies with as little number of constraints as possible, can make reporting, and managing the project easier for the project manager. With multiple concurrent projects, the discipline of constraints management can save quite a bit of schedule maintenance.