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.