

Stakeholder Analysis
What is a stakeholder analysis, and why might I need one?
Stakeholder classification
When the project community is very large
· Affecting large and diversified groups
· As with infrastructure projects
· Such as public works or services
· It is useful to classify the stakeholder groups
· And prioritize their linkages
· According to their potential impact on the project
· To make the management task manageable
Stakeholder groupings - 1
Stakeholders may be found in any of the following groupings
A) Those who directly relate to the project
· E.g. suppliers of inputs, consumers of outputs
· And all those involved in the project process itself
B) Those who have direct influence
· Over the physical, infrastructure, technological, commercial/financial/socio-economic or legal conditions
Stakeholder groupings - 2
C) Those who have a hierarchical relationship to the project
· E.g. government authorities at local regional or national levels
D) Those individuals, groups ands associations who have vested interests
· Sometimes quite unrelated to the project
· But who see it as a means to their own ends
· Such as competitors or special interest groups
Prioritizing into categories
Having identified the various groupings
· Each may be assigned to a priority category
· We suggest one of three
· According to their relative ability to influence the project
· Further subdivision is possible
· But not usually necessary
The three categories
Generally, there are three levels
1. Those whose requirements can be modified or constrained
· E.g. the customers
2. Those whose requirements can be influenced
· E.g. not necessarily the formal customers, but nonetheless are significantly impacted
3. Those who must be appreciated
· Because they are indirectly affected by the project
Maintaining healthy linkages
·
Armed with the foregoing information
· Assign responsibility to members of the team
· To look after the various groups
· To spread the workload
· According to the most appropriate responsibility area
·
On very large sensitive projects
· Adopting a public relations policy is valuable