Defining Project Success, One Stakeholder at a Time
Deborah Bigelow Crawford has more than 20 years of experience in business management and handles the operational and administrative functions of PM Solutions. Ms. Bigelow Crawford also serves as Co-CEO of the PM College®, PM Solutions' training division, where she is responsible for the fiscal management and quality assurance of all training and professional development programs. Prior to joining PM Solutions, she served as the Executive Director of the Project Management Institute (PMI), and was instrumental in providing the foundation and infrastructure for the exponential growth that the Institute has maintained over the last 10 years. In addition, she served as the Executive Director of the PMI Educational Foundation. Over the last decade, she has authored numerous articles in PM Network, Chief Project Officer, and Optimize magazines. Ms. Bigelow Crawford is also co-author of the book Project Management Essentials. She has presented a variety of papers as a speaker at international symposia and conferences, and is a member of the National Association of Female Executives and the Project Management Institute.
If you were ever asked “What defines a successful project?” what would your answer be? Would it be “being on time”? “within budget”? In the past, a project manager may not have even recognized or understood the impact on the success of a project of a particular person or unit. He may have been negligent in communicating key decisions, changes, updates … things that could have affected the completion of the project and the success of the project. Thankfully, our conception of project management has evolved to the understanding that the real answer should be “When the customer is satisfied and the project brings value to the organization.”
Since the definition of project success has changed over the years to include stakeholder satisfaction and value to the organization, you can see why PMI has emphasized the importance of stakeholder management by developing a whole knowledge area explaining the processes involved. These include identifying stakeholders, planning stakeholder management, and managing and controlling the stakeholder engagement. These processes interact with each other. The ability of a project manager to correctly identify and manage these stakeholders can mean the difference between success and failure.
The PMBOK® Guide defines a stakeholder as an “individual, group, or organization who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project.” (p.563 of the 5th Edtion, the first edition of the standard to include Stakeholder Management as a new knowledge area.) As you might expect, this covers a wide range of people and organizations: Vendor, business unit, partner, creditor, John Q. Public … some of these (the key and internal stakeholders) are obvious: the project manager, team members, and above all the sponsor and the customer. They could also include members of the PMO, functional managers and other influencers. Others may not be immediately obvious:
- External stakeholders. These include contractors and vendors who are external to the project organization, as well as members of the public who may be impacted by the project.
- Allies. These are those who are supportive of the project manager and team no matter what goes wrong. They are stabilizers on the project and can be invaluable resources for the project team.
- Opponents. This group offer roadblocks to the project manager and team. This is your challenging group, but with foresight and planning, they can be successfully managed ... they can even prove to be a valuable source of contrarian wisdom, especially in the area of risk management!
- Ambivalents. These are the stakeholders who sit on the fence. When things go well, they are allies. When things go poorly, they are opponents. The trick is to understand them and their motivations so that opposition does not come as a surprise, or can even be converted to support.
No matter what, all stakeholders are tuned in to “what’s in it for me” (as we all are!). Project managers must strive to understand their expectations and manage them, focusing on communications processes that are tailored to their specific need and preferences. Stakeholders may have differing ideas as to what is important … for some it might be budget; for others, schedule or quality. Through the use of stakeholder management tools and discussions with stakeholders, the project team will be better able to understand and manage their expectations.
As with most things in life, communication is key. A project manager needs to ensure that communication not only flows to each stakeholder, but that the communication is accurate and clear. The method of communication for each stakeholder should be identified in the communications management plan with the project manager deciding how, when, and which communication tools you to be used throughout the project.
In summary, project managers need to identify, assess, plan, manage and control their stakeholders. (Well, maybe control isn't exactly the right word.)They need to weigh every change to a project and assess the impact, balance the demands, and maintain proactive communication with their stakeholders, if they want to deliver a successful project. Are you and your project managers up to the challenge?
Bobby Fishkin says:
All projects everywhere ought to be scoped in the interest of stakeholders. Project management as a field ought to integrate this notion from the fields of social innovation and social enterprise.
Project managers too often are taught to perception manage changes in project scope for stakeholders.
There is always an alternative of more project manager creativity and more project collective intelligence to figure out how to ensure all initial scopes and changes of scope reflect the interest of all stakeholders.
Project managers can help to go the extra mile in considering the implications of scope for stakeholders. Project managers are responsible in approving an initial scope or approving modifications to scopes for the implications of these decisions for stakeholders. They should leverage processes to go the extra mile and take responsibility for these implications.
They can use tools like scenario planning, cost benefit analysis, design thinking, these area all processes that can happen before an initial scope or a revision of scope creates harm for stakeholder or misses unique opportunity for positive impact on stakeholders.
Posted on May 22, 2018 at 5:38 pm