Anyone who can impact a project or is impacted by the project, is a stakeholder. An internal company project might have stakeholders from different departments. Stakeholders could be clients who have hired your firm to provide a service. Stakeholders could be members of a town council. Stakeholders are individuals affected by the outcome of the project.
These same people can put constraints on the project. This could be a delay in the schedule or decrease of the budget. Stakeholders can also be project champions. They can advocate for the project and help provide an atmosphere for success.
Identifying stakeholders is an import process on projects. To document stakeholders, projects should use a stakeholder register. This maintains relevant information such as name, positions, and contact information. Other information is the stakeholder’s project role and project expectations.
Managing stakeholder engagement is very important to any project. People can be unpredictable at times and this can influence the success of any project. Stakeholders will make decisions that will help or hurt the project. They can make the difference between success and failure. A big part of what project managers do on projects is communication. This communication is an attempt to keep the stakeholder informed and build relationships.