Stakeholders can vary from project to project. Project stakeholders can be the people who are doing the work, as well as the work is being done for. Project stakeholders can be internal or external, and range from individual contributors to senior executives. The TL;DR, though, is that if the person can impact or be impacted by the project, they’re probably a project stakeholder. The best time to identify stakeholders is before the project has fully kicked-off, typically during stakeholder analysis. This process helps you identify the right stakeholders—and clarify their motives and interest—early, so you can start the project with the right information.