Stakeholder Analysis

Description

• Identifies all the individuals and groups (stakeholders) who have influence over the progress of the BPI program and will be affected by its results. The Stakeholder Analysis provides a way of identifying the current level of support for change among these individuals and groups, and the degree of influence that they have upon the change process.
• The Stakeholder Analysis needs to be client-specific, because each organisation has its own set of stakeholders. In some organisations, for example, unions, external lobby groups, government regulating bodies, industry associations and other external bodies play quite a different role than they do in other organisations.

When to Use

• A Stakeholder Analysis is a very valuable starting point in the development of a Communication Plan. Once the Stakeholder Analysis is completed, the project team is able to develop an integrated suite of communication strategies that take full account of the concerns and interests of stakeholders.
• It is important that the Stakeholder Analysis is revisited at key points in the BPI program, particularly in the Migration Plan and the Implementation Plans. The regular use of Stakeholder Analysis provides the project team with a way of monitoring shifts in the commitment and influence patterns among stakeholders.

Approach

• Identify all internal and external stakeholders. Include stakeholders who will be directly affected by the changes (e.g. employees and customers), and groups who will be indirectly affected (e.g. the customer’s customer, unions), or who have a political or emotional stake in the outcome (e.g. lobby groups).
• Ascertain their current level of commitment to, and influence over, the change.
• Chart their respective positions on a Stakeholder Analysis grid.
• Determine the preferred/most effective means of communication of particular individuals and groups represented in the Stakeholder Analysis.

Guidelines

Problems/Solutions

• Ensure that sponsors accept the findings of the Stakeholder Analysis.  Facilitate this by involving them in the process, and seeking advice and information from them on their experience with the various stakeholder groups in the past.
• Realise that stakeholders will align differently upon different issues associated with the BPI program. For example, a design group within manufacturing will feel differently about a proposal to outsource design, than they will to proposed changed to a manufacturing process that has minimal direct impact upon their work and job security. Revisit the analysis, whenever there is a shift in the actual content or focus of the proposed change.

Tactics/Helpful Hints

• Don’t rely on one set of opinions about the support and influence levels of stakeholders. Talk to several well-positioned people or groups, and try to get a more complete view.
• Realise that support and influence levels will change over the course of a change process due to a range of factors, including how well the change has been handled, and what shifts have occurred in the formal and informal power structures within the organisation.

Methods

Nearly every delivery methodology provides a method of defining Roles and Responsibilities as part of a Stakeholder Analysis. Below are a couple of examples I have come across on the many projects I have been involved with:

COBIT uses RACI

The RACI Matrix is a tool to assist in the identification of roles and assigning of cross-functional responsibilities to a project deliverable or activity.  

Responsibility: person or role responsible for ensuring that the item is completed

Accountable: person or role responsible for actually doing or completing the item

Consulted: person or role whose subject matter expertise is required in order to complete the item

Informed: person or role that needs to be kept informed of the status of item completion

PMI - PMBOK - TOGAF

The PMI Project Management methodology shows an example of Stakeholder Analysis combining a power grid model with a stakeholder analysis matrix. Stakeholders are defined in the following categories and mapped on the Grid below :

• high power/ high interest
• high power/ low interest
• low power/ high interest
• low power/ low interest

Power Interest Grid Model

The stakeholder are then capture in an Analysis Matrix:

Stakeholders Analysis Matrix