Stakeholder Analysis – How to manage difficult stakeholders?

To begin with, what is a stakeholder?

A stakeholder can be individual or organisations whose interests may be affected in case of any changes in the project planning and execution. Stakeholder or client relationship management is an ongoing process in itself. The Business Analyst comes into picture here where he/she not only identifies stakeholders but ensure a time to time update on the progress of the project by building healthy relationship with them.

Why to identify stakeholders?

In the Software Development Lifecycle, many companies follow agile framework to plan and implement the project. The first step is taking in account the requirements from the client. Here, the stakeholder holds a decisive position whenever there is a need for a more detailed discussion to develop a module. It is the stakeholder who explains the existing business processes being followed at the organisation along with the challenges to be overcome. This process is also known as Stakeholder Analysis which is crucial to understand the organisational structure and landscape.

Gaining a stakeholders’ confidence will help you in:

• assessing the current business processes and resources
• clearly defining the project milestones
• bridging the communication gap and keeping the project going ahead smoothly
• winning the confidence leading to access to more resources

How to identify stakeholders?

• Key Motivators for them – Overcoming financial hurdles or timely Delivery of modules
• Key Influencers in their team and their reviews on the current state of the project
• Regularly managing preferred mode of communication to keep up the confidence
• Value addition task planners who look forward to better your product usage

Another technique to identify stakeholders is by making Power-Interest Chart for the stakeholders. Once the clarity on stakeholder position is clear, you can plan the modes of communication with the respective parties. Some might just need a casual follow up while other might expect you to share detailed reports on the status of the project.

Are all the stakeholders easy to manage?

If we consider the agile framework of project management, the priority based selection of user stories may lead to little friction in the stakeholder behaviour. A stakeholder with multiple team goals and a definite timeline for delivery can be harsh in case the project plan in not developed as expected. Hence, the stakeholder management in itself becomes a task that demands maximum attention.

How to manage stakeholders effectively?

The key to successful stakeholder analysis and management requires the business analyst to ensure time to time engagement with the client. Effective communication skills here come handy and prevent damage by gauging the risks in advance. Assumptions can prove harmful. Hence, it is better to have a clear and detailed discussion with the clients and understanding their expectations in terms of delivery.

Stakeholders are humans at the end of the day, it is best to stay prepared in case of escalations and present to them facts that really are viable and justify your side of work. It is also crucial to maintain healthy relationships with the stakeholders to gather healthy reviews and feedback from them.

Planning and preparing project trackers and updating them on a regular basis can help to substantiate your work. It is also a good medium to add comments and mention in advance the reasons for possible delay. You should step up and take responsibility at all times to remove the possibility of uncertain behaviours from the client. It will also play a critical role for your internal team to keep calm and focus on what needs to done as planned.