Insert Surname 2
StakeholderAnalysis
Situation
Thesituation presented involved kick-starting a new project for creatinga software application. The stakeholders include Steve as anarchitect, Christine as User Experience Lead, Jack as Testing lead,Billy as Project Manager from Client’s Side, Griffins as BusinessDevelopment Manager, Maria as Sponsor for the project, ABC ascompetitor organization, and Mark and Peter as project auditors.
Supposeduring the audit of the project, the cost of the project is found tobe going too high. Maria, the project sponsor in Keep InformedQuadrant (Low Power-High Interest grid) can demand that the projectupdates be done more frequently. This means that the project willhave to be managed very closely. As such, Maria may need to move toManage Closely Quadrant (High Power-High Interest grid). Similarly,when the project faces challenges of application performance, theproject Manager, Billy in Manage Closely Quadrant (High Power-HighInterest grid), will have to monitor it very closely, hence moving toMonitor Closely Quadrant (Low Interest-Low Power Grid). Thestakeholder with high power and high interest such as Steve,Christine, Jack and Billy as Architect,User Experience Lead, Testing Lead and Project Manager respectivelywill have very high influence to power to the performance of theapplication. For instance, Steve as the project architect has veryhigh power to ensure that the project succeeds. As such, there willbe a great need to manage him very closely.
Therefore,it can be concluded, in simple terms, that the stakeholders at HighPower-High Interest Grid (Architect, User Experience Lead, TestingLead and Project Manager) should be engaged fully. This implies thatmore effort and time have to be spent in managing them. On the otherhand, the stakeholder in High Power-Low Interest Grid (BusinessDevelopment Manager and Sponsor) should not be kept so much engagedwith communication. The micro details should be left out whencommunicating with these types of stakeholders. For instance, theyare not supposed to attend daily team meetings as the stakeholders inHigh Power-High Interest Grid. Rather, they should be sent the notesfor the meetings by other stakeholders. TheLow Power-Low Interest stakeholders like competitors (ABCorganization) can be very helpful in developing details for theproject. This can be achieved through monitoring them closely andensuring that much is not communicated to them (Weiss66).The high power-Low interest stakeholders likeproject auditors(Mark and Peter) must be kept satisfied by giving them enough work,though they should not be given much communication.
Asthe project manager, after preparing the power/interest grid, thenext step is to try and develop a clear understanding of whatmotivates the stakeholders as well as how to win them throughout thewhole project development exercise (Richardsonand Marcie 56). This involves creating a stakeholder communication and managementplan as shown below.
Thecolumn on key interests and issues helps the project manager torecord information that is specific for each stakeholder. The‘current status’ column can either contain information likeblocker, neutral, supporter or advocate (Cuppen208). The ‘actions desired’ column entails how the projectmanager plans to keep the stakeholders engaged. The ‘messagesneeded’ column contains information that the project manager issupposed to communicate to stakeholders. This may entail deadlines,key financial data and related impacts to the project.
WorksCited
Cuppen,Eefje. "15 Stakeholder Analysis." Foresightin Organizations: Methods and Tools (2016):208.
Richardson,Kathy Brittain, and Marcie Hinton. AppliedPublic Relations: Cases in Stakeholder Management.Routledge, 2015.
Weiss,Joseph W. "Business Ethics: A Stakeholder & IssuesManagement Approach, 2014." CyrusChronicle Journal 1.1(2016): 66-69.