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Stakeholders
A project is successful when it achieves its objectives and meets or exceeds the expectations of the stakeholders. Stakeholders are those folks (or organizations) with a vested interest in the project. They are the people who are actively involved with the work of the projecr or have something to either gain or lose as a result of the project.
The project sponsor, generally an executive in the organization with the authority to assign resources and enforce decisions regarding the project, is a stakeholder. The customer is a stakeholder, as are contractors and suppliers. The project manager, project team members, and the managers from other departments in the organization are stakeholders as well. It's important to identify all the stakeholders in your project up front. If you leave out an important stakeholder or their department's function and don't discover the error until well into the project, it could be a project killer.
Many times, stakeholders have conflicting interests. It's the project manager's responsibility to understand these conflicts and try to resolve them. It's also the project manager's responsibility to manage stakeholder expectations. Be certain to identify and meet with all key stakeholders early in the project to understand all their needs and constraints. And when in doubt, stakeholder conflicts should always be resolved in favor of the customer.
Key stakeholders can make or break the success of a project. Even if all the deliverables are met and the objectives are satisfied, if your key stakeholders aren't happy, nobody's happy. |
