Project stakeholders are persons or entities who have an interest in a given project. According to the
Project Management Institute
The Project Management Institute (PMI, legally Project Management Institute, Inc.) is a U.S.-based not-for-profit professional organization for project management.
Overview
PMI serves more than five million professionals including over 680,0 ...
(PMI), the term ''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".
ISO 21500 uses a similar definition.
Stakeholders may be located inside or outside an
organization
An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose.
The word is derived f ...
, including:
# the project's
sponsor;
# those with an interest or the potential to gain from the successful completion of a project;
#anyone who may have a positive or negative influence in the project completion.
Example roles
The following are examples of project stakeholders:
* Project leader
*
Senior management
Senior management, executive management, upper management, or a management is generally individuals at the highest level of management of an organization who have the day-to-day tasks of managing that organization—sometimes a company or a corpor ...
*
Project team members
* Project customer
*
Resource
Resource refers to all the materials available in our environment which are technologically accessible, economically feasible and culturally sustainable and help us to satisfy our needs and wants. Resources can broadly be classified upon thei ...
managers
* Line managers
* Product user group
* Project testers
* Any group impacted by the project as it progresses
* Any group impacted by the project when it is completed
* Subcontractors to the project
*
Consultants
A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization.
Consulting servi ...
to the project
Rather than focusing on one subset of stakeholders, Lynda Bourne advocates prioritizing all stakeholders and focusing your attention on the "most important" at this point in time. Her view of importance encompasses an assessment of the power, proximity and urgency associated with each stakeholder. She calls her methodology a "Stakeholder Circle".
The rationale for this emphasis on decision makers is part of project
stakeholder management and a key component in affecting change in an organization.
John Hotter describes
stakeholder analysis and stakeholder management as essential components of
change management
Change management (sometimes abbreviated as CM) is a collective term for all approaches to prepare, support, and help individuals, teams, and organizations in making organizational change. It includes methods that redirect or redefine the use ...
.
See also
*
Stakeholder register
A stakeholder register is a document that describes who (individual or group) is affected by a project, and their effect and impact on the project. A stakeholder register is ideally completed early in the project to ensure proper engagement of st ...
References
Further reading
*Freeman, R E (1984), ''Strategic Management: a Stakeholder Approach'', Pitman Series in Business and Public Policy, Harpercollins College Div; First Edition.
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Corporate finance
Project management
de:Stakeholder#Stakeholder im Projektmanagement