This all takes a lot of time, but if stakeholders can see that they are being listened to, considered and treated as an asset, then they are much more likely to contribute to the project's success. To run a successful project we need to identify and involve all the people who fall into this category. Certainly the project team and potential users are key stakeholders but so are key suppliers, members of the Board, key customers, business managers in related areas, members of regulatory bodies, part of the supply chain, members of the public, professional societies, and anyone else whose knowledge affects the outcome. Apart from identifying the stakeholders, getting to know how they relate to the project is a vital part of making it work. Figure 1 illustrates how the stakeholders surround a project like planets in a solar system and each stakeholder has a combination of power to make decisions, proximity to the project work and interest in the results.
Stakeholders surround a project like planets in the solar system.
Some close, some further away, some more powerful, some weaker. The real nature of the relationships between them is not immediately visible. They can perturb the paths of projects as well as the orbits of other planets Stakeholders need to be involved when project objectives are being set, when requirements are being developed, when risks and opportunities are being assessed, and when decisions are being made. The point of identifying and getting to know stakeholders early means that we can involve the right people throughout the project. It is often necessary to combine informal questioning with a more systematic search , here are some ideas for doing that.