Stakeholder Analysis & Management

Introduction

Collaborating with all stakeholders is critical to the success of IT development projects.  The sooner your project team can identify all the stakeholders (i.e. anyone affected by the project) and involve them in the development process, the greater your chance for success.  Note that we say “anyone affected” and not “anyone that benefits”.  More on this to come.

Description

A Stakeholders Roles and Responsibilities (SRR) table is one of the first frameworks your team will use after your first meeting with the client.  This three-column table lists stakeholders’ names with their respective roles and responsibilities.  See the Resource page on class site to access the SRR template

Purpose

Completing a Stakeholders Roles and Responsibilities (SRR) table helps you identify anyone affected by your project and/or who may have a stake in the success of the project.  By identifying all possible stakeholders, you identify anyone who you need to contact in order to learn system requirements. Past MIS 374 teams report that identifying technical support, managers, and project sponsors, as well as the expected user categories, was critical to their success. Teams that did NOT do this, many times, experienced hiccups or unexpected delay and failures in their project.  For example, establishing a relationship with tech support early in the process can reduce problems within the development environment, post-go-live maintenance phase, and increase the chance of a smooth transition to the production environment.  The last thing you want to do is build something that your tech support team refused to support especially when this could have been avoided by simply identifying all stakeholders and communicating early with them. 

When considering who is a stakeholder consider all people that fall within this 2x2 matrix:

Using the above framework helps you fully think through all possible stakeholders in your project.

Internal stakeholders are those in the organization who interact with the system or have a significant interest in its operation or success. These could employees but some organizations - such as nonprofits or schools - have internal users (e.g., volunteers, students) who are not employees.

External stakeholders are those outside the organization’s control and influence, although this distinction can also be fuzzy, such as when an organization’s strategic partners (e.g., suppliers and shipping companies) interact directly with internal systems.

Operational stakeholders are those who regularly interact with a system in the course of their jobs or lives. Examples include bookkeepers interacting with an accounting or billing system, factory workers interacting with a production scheduling system, or customers interacting with an Internet storefront.  Operational users are a key source of requirements information, especially as it pertains to user interfaces and related functionality.

Executive stakeholders are those who do not interact directly with the system but who either use information produced by the system or have a significant financial or other interest in its operation and success. Examples include an organization’s senior managers and board of directors, regulatory agencies, and taxing authorities.

IT Support - Also you need to think about IT Support and Business Support.  Who will troubleshoot business issues that relate to the system?  Who will troubleshoot, fix, and enhance system?

Creating a Stakeholder Roles & Responsibilities (SRR) Table

At your kick-off meeting, ask the client to identify everyone who will benefit from the project as well as anyone who may be opposed or negatively impacted.  What about managers who won’t use the system but will need reports from it?  Stakeholders might include but are not limited to:  management, sales, customers, engineering, system administrators, technical support, boards, and other potential users. Tell your client you will create an SRR table and kindly request an organization chart or an employee directory if available. If no organization chart is available, ask your client for names, titles, responsibilities, and contact information of all stakeholders.  After the meeting, create your SRR table and email a draft to your client contact as an attachment to your meeting minutes if possible.  Download the Stakeholder template via the links at the bottom of this page.

Why does Stakeholder Analysis & Management matter?

The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) will state that one of the most difficult parts of a project to manage is communication. By creating an SRR table is the first step in getting your project organized.  It acquaints you with all stakeholders, their roles, and responsibilities.   This helps you see the big picture and learn the real scope of the project. There are always more people to consider than you expect.  The consequences can be disastrous if you don’t learn about all stakeholders early.

Tips for Completeness

• Include as wide a range of users as possible as a way to learn the real scope of the project and help you determine prioritized requirements with your clients. You introduce risk if you only take one user group’s perceptive on the requirements and priorities.
• Sometimes users will be clients or customers of your client and unavailable to contact. List them on the SRR table anyway.  For example, on the SRR table a past team did for a charter school, the team listed both “Parents” and “Prospective Parents.”  You may be able to work with a focus group of parents or other likely users with a relationship to your client, but probably not with prospective clients like “Prospective Parents.”
• Do not assume that your client will know all the answers. For example, you may have to list “to be determined for a couple rows.  This is a tip that your team will need to research possibilities by talking with client contacts you identify on your SRR table.  For example, a common challenge for MIS 374 teams with non-profit clients is finding a web hosting service that will meet your client’s budget and still have the tools you need for your client’s production environment.  (For example, the Visual Studio tools you used in your MIS classes are costly and not cost-effective for your clients which may require more open source solutions like PHP.)
• Do no leave any cells in the SRR table blank or empty. If there is missing information or if you simply don't know what to write, enter "N/A" or "TBD". DO NOT MAKE UP NAMES/ROLES.
• Be as diligent learning about tech support for the production system as you are about learning who your users are. Note that you may not have any external users if the system is planned for internal use only but you will certainly need to consider if there is an existing webmaster or tech person to coordinate with OR if you need to encourage them to train/hire someone to take on the system management when you’re gone.  

FAQs

Q1:  How many rows do we need to fill out on our SRR Table?

   Answer:  there is no magic number but you should certainly call out anyone that can be affected by the work you are doing.  Include as wide a range of users as possible early in the project. To help identify all operational users model the as-is process and system at an early meeting.  This will help you identify all the users of the system and their different roles.  This will assist you in making sure you gather information and insights from all the proper parties.

Q2:  What if we don’t know all the users or tech support staff?

   Answer:  Ask your client contacts.

Q3:  Do we really need to meet with EVERY stakeholder, even Board of Directors?

   Answer:  You should make every attempt to meet with anyone that can affect your project’s success.  To make things more efficient you can work with the client to schedule a series of meetings with all the stakeholders in one day.  Spending 3-4 hours up front can save you much trouble later plus it’s more efficient than doing many 1 hour meetings over many weeks.  You can also split your team into smaller groups and divide up the effort of interviewing stakeholders. 

Next Steps...

Read about how Empathy Maps Links to an external site. and Communication Planning Links to an external site. will help you assess what matters most to your client while also managing their expectations in the best way possible.

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Resources 

Template: Stakeholder Table Template Download Stakeholder Table Template

 

Stakeholder Table Examples: House of Songs Download House of Songs (Wordpress) Asset Mapping Download Asset Mapping (Custom)

Empathy Mapping Examples: 12th Street Owners Assoc. Download 12th Street Owners Assoc. Vet Hug Online Support Network Download Vet Hug Online Support Network