Applied project management#11 Manage stakeholders

After identifying and classifying the stakeholders into four segments, one has to develop strategies to manage the required engagement levels with the stakeholders.

The high power-high interest group is the most critical one. They can support / kill the project. During the phase gate / stage gate meetings the project need their approval to proceed further. They must be managed very closely. The sponsors of the project falls into this category. We have to manage them very closely. Common approaches to manage the high power-high interest category are;

• Personal briefings 
• Workshops 
• Risk briefings 
• Presentations 

Then we have the high power-low interest group. The CEO of the client organization may have several things to attend to, and your project is just one of it. He/She is highly powerful and at the same time may not show too much interest in your project. We have to keep them satisfied. Some of the best approaches to manage the stakeholders in this category are;

• Leverage existing meetings 
• Special presentations 
• Organizational briefings. 

The next category is the High interest - low power category. Typical end users of the product of the project falls into this category. While individually they are not very strong, collectively they become the opinion leaders, and sometimes very strong as well. Commonly used best practices to manage this segment of the stakeholders are;

• Beta programs 
• News letters 
• Posters 
• Flyers 
• Web site 

Then comes the low power, low interest category. These are the people who do not much interest in your project and any authority to influence your project. It is safe to ignore this segment. 

As we can see, stakeholder classification, and stakeholder management strategy have a direct impact on the communication plan of your project. Both are tightly linked.

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