Mastering Stakeholder Engagement: 6 Practical Steps from PMBOK Guide 7 to Drive Project Success

In this and the upcoming editions of our newsletter, we will explore the 8 performance domains outlined in the PMBOK Guide. Here's a quick overview of these domains:

1. Stakeholder: Focuses on identifying, engaging, and managing the expectations and influences of all project stakeholders.
2. Team: Ensures the development and management of the project team, fostering collaboration and effectiveness.
3. Development Approach and Life Cycle: Involves selecting and managing the appropriate development approach (e.g., agile or predictive) and project life cycle.
4. Planning: Centers around creating a detailed plan that guides the project toward successful outcomes.
5. Project Work: Involves ensuring that the project team performs the planned activities to deliver the desired outcomes.
6. Delivery: Focuses on delivering the project’s product, service, or result in alignment with the project’s objectives.
7. Measurement: Tracks and assesses the project’s performance using key metrics to ensure alignment with objectives.
8. Uncertainty: Addresses risk management and strategies to deal with uncertainties that may affect project outcomes.

Today, we begin with the Stakeholder Performance Domain, starting from the theory and diving deeper into the practical and pragmatic aspects of effective stakeholder management.

The Stakeholder Engagement theory in the PMBOK Guide 7 follows six key steps that ensure effective management and engagement of stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle. Here's a brief explanation of each step:

1. Identify: This step involves recognizing all individuals, groups, or organizations that could affect or be affected by the project. Creating a stakeholder register helps to document these stakeholders along with their roles, interests, and influence levels.

2. Understand: Once stakeholders are identified, it's essential to understand their needs, expectations, and potential concerns. This step lays the foundation for meaningful engagement by recognizing what drives each stakeholder's interest in the project.

3. Analyze: In this phase, project managers assess the influence, power, and level of interest of each stakeholder. Tools like the Power/Interest Grid are often used to categorize stakeholders based on these attributes, helping to determine the level of engagement required.

4. Prioritize: Not all stakeholders need the same level of attention. In this step, project managers prioritize stakeholders based on their influence and interest to focus efforts on the most critical relationships. High-priority stakeholders, such as sponsors or key customers, may require more frequent and detailed communication.

5. Engage: Here, project managers implement engagement strategies tailored to each stakeholder's needs and priorities. This involves ongoing communication, managing expectations, and addressing concerns to ensure stakeholder satisfaction and support.

6. Monitor: Stakeholder engagement is a dynamic process. Continuous monitoring is needed to assess changes in stakeholder influence, interests, or engagement levels. This helps the project team adjust their strategies accordingly to maintain effective relationships throughout the project lifecycle.

For PMP students, mapping the six principles of stakeholder engagement to the four processes of the Stakeholder Management knowledge area in the PMBOK Guide (6th Edition) should be fairly straightforward. As we know, the PMBOK Guide takes a process-oriented approach. Here's a brief overview of the four processes:

1. Identify Stakeholders: This is the process of recognizing all project stakeholders and documenting relevant information regarding their interests, influence, and potential impact on the project.
2. Plan Stakeholder Engagement: In this process, strategies and plans are developed to engage stakeholders effectively throughout the project, ensuring their needs are addressed.
3. Manage Stakeholder Engagement: Here, the project manager implements the engagement strategies, ensuring regular communication and addressing concerns to maintain stakeholder support.
4. Monitor Stakeholder Engagement: This process involves tracking stakeholder relationships and adjusting engagement strategies based on changing conditions, feedback, or stakeholder influence.

Each of these processes aligns with the stakeholder engagement principles, focusing on planning, action, and continuous monitoring to maintain effective stakeholder relationships.

There are several tools that project managers commonly use to engage and manage stakeholders effectively:

1. Stakeholder Register

A comprehensive document listing all stakeholders, their roles, interests, influence, expectations, and the level of engagement required. This tool helps in tracking stakeholder engagement throughout the project lifecycle.

2. Power/Interest Grid (or Power/Influence Matrix)

This tool helps categorize stakeholders based on their level of power and interest in the project. It assists in prioritizing stakeholders and tailoring engagement strategies accordingly:

High Power/High Interest: Manage closely.

High Power/Low Interest: Keep satisfied.

Low Power/High Interest: Keep informed.

Low Power/Low Interest: Monitor with minimal effort.

3. Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix

This matrix compares the current engagement levels of stakeholders against the desired engagement levels. Categories typically include unaware, resistant, neutral, supportive, and leading. It helps in planning engagement strategies.

4. Communication Management Plan

A key component that outlines how, when, and to whom communications will be delivered. It includes communication channels, frequency, methods, and the responsible parties. This ensures stakeholders receive the right information at the right time.

5. RACI Matrix (Responsibility Assignment Matrix)

The RACI Matrix clarifies roles and responsibilities within the project team and among stakeholders by specifying who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. This helps in preventing communication gaps and misunderstandings.

6. Meetings and Workshops

Regular meetings with stakeholders, such as project kick-offs, status updates, and reviews, are fundamental tools for keeping stakeholders engaged and informed. Workshops are often used to gather feedback and align expectations.

7. Surveys and Questionnaires

These are used to gather feedback from stakeholders, particularly when dealing with a large or distributed group. They help in understanding stakeholder concerns, expectations, and satisfaction levels.

8. Issue Log

A document used to track and manage issues raised by stakeholders throughout the project. It helps in resolving concerns early and keeping stakeholders satisfied.

9. Change Log

Keeps track of any changes requested by stakeholders or any modifications that impact stakeholders. Ensures transparent communication and alignment of expectations.

10. Project Management Information System (PMIS)

Digital platforms like Microsoft Project, Jira, Asana, or Smartsheet allow project managers to keep track of project progress, allocate tasks, and provide stakeholders with access to real-time updates and dashboards.

Here are some of the most popular software tools for managing stakeholders in project management, along with their key features and links to official websites (This list is based on my personal research and may not be comprehensive. There has been no direct communication between myself and the producers of these softwares):

Simply Stakeholders: This software specializes in stakeholder relationship management. It offers features like stakeholder mapping, AI-driven sentiment analysis, and stakeholder information management. It's ideal for organizations needing comprehensive relationship insights across projects.

Tractivity: Tractivity is a robust stakeholder engagement tool that helps with stakeholder mapping, risk management, and issue tracking. It also features dashboards and engagement tracking, making it a great fit for large projects with complex stakeholder networks.

Jambo: Jambo offers features for tracking communication and engagement with stakeholders, managing feedback, and creating comprehensive stakeholder records. It is widely used in community-focused projects due to its focus on surveys and analytics.

Darzin: A CRM-like tool tailored for stakeholders, Darzin helps organizations track stakeholder relationships and grievances, segment stakeholders, and perform both qualitative and quantitative analyses. It’s popular for large-scale projects with complex stakeholder ecosystems.

Insightly: Though primarily a CRM tool, Insightly includes features for stakeholder management, especially for teams managing customer-focused projects. It combines CRM functionalities with project management and marketing automation.

It’s worth noting that nearly all of these software solutions structure their commercial strategy around offering users an alternative to using spreadsheets for stakeholder management, emphasizing automation and advanced functionality for better efficiency.

Finally, here are some very practical and trivial tips for effective stakeholder management:

1. Maintain an Updated Contact List: Ensure your contact information for stakeholders is accessible across all your devices.

2. Develop Communication Skills: While being direct is important, always communicate politely and respectfully.

3. Keep track of your communications: When a stakeholder sees that you’re on top of all your previous communications, it becomes much easier to earn their trust.

- This content is provided for educational use only -