Managing Software Projects

Stakeholders Analysis
 Stakeholder Analysis

To understand the relationship of Project

Manager and the Projects with the others in
the organization.
 Who are Stakeholders?
• Stakeholders are:
– people affected by the impact of an activity
– people who can influence the impact of an
activity.
– Stakeholders can be individuals, groups, a
community or an institution.
 Stakeholders Management Process
1. Identifying stakeholders involves identifying everyone involved in the project or affected
by it and determining the best ways to manage relationships with them. The main
output of this process is a stakeholder register.

2. Planning stakeholder management involves determining strategies to effectively engage

stakeholders in project decisions and activities based on their needs, interests, and
potential impact. Outputs of this process are a stakeholder management plan and
project documents updates.

3. Managing stakeholder engagement involves communicating and working with project

stakeholders to satisfy their needs and expectations, resolving issues, and fostering
engagement in project decisions and activities. The outputs of this process are issue logs,
change requests, project management plan updates, project documents updates, and
organizational process assets updates.

4. Controlling stakeholder engagement involves monitoring stakeholder relationships and

adjusting plans and strategies for engaging stakeholders as needed. Outputs of this
process are work performance information, change requests, project documents
updates, and organizational process assets updates.
Questions to understand Stakeholders
• What financial or emotional interest do they have in the outcome
of your work? Is it positive or negative?
• What motivates them most of all?
• What information do they want from you?
• How do they want to receive information from you? What is the
best way of communicating your message to them?
• What is their current opinion of your work? Is it based on good
information?
• Who influences their opinions generally, and who influences their
opinion of you? Do some of these influencers therefore become
important stakeholders in their own right?
• If they are not likely to be positive, what will win them around to
support your project?
• If you don't think you will be able to win them around, how will you
manage their opposition?
• Who else might be influenced by their opinions? Do these people
become stakeholders in their own right?
 Stakeholder Map

Stockholders Management Customers

Business Organization Suppliers

Employees

Competition internal Government

external
 Stakeholders
• Stockholders
– Concerned about Project providing adequate
ROI

• Customers
– Concerned about the release of products to
meet their demands at a competitive price
 Stakeholders
• Suppliers
– Concerned about supplying the best hardware
and software for development teams.
• Government
– Legal Aspect. Usage of software products in
sensitive areas may require government approval.
• Competition
– Passive stakeholders.
Stakeholder Categories
 Spade work for Stakeholder’s
Analysis

• Understand the organization goals and

strategy.

• Understand the organization and its structure.

 Organization Structure
• Functional Organization
– Most common Organization structure
– Group people functionally into departments
• Project Organization
– Model adopted by pure projects organizations viz.
R&D Labs, Software Consulting, Construction Cos.
– Each project a functional unit to which resources
are assigned by the Organization
• Matrix Organization
– Combination of Functional and Project Structures
– Creation of a dual hierarchy
 Functional Structure
• Strengths
– Project developed within functional units, not
disrupting the structure
– Enables in-depth knowledge and functional
verticals
– Allows standard career paths
• Weaknesses
– Functional silo-ing makes it difficult to achieve
cross-functional cooperation
– Lack of customer focus
– Project priority may be suboptimized
 Project Organizations
• Strengths
– Assigns authority solely to the PM
– Leads to improved communications among
functional groups
– Speedy and Effective decision making
• Weaknesses
– Setting up and maintaining teams can be
expensive
– Difficult to maintain a pooled supply of intellectual
capital
– Concern among project team members about
their future once the project ends.
Matrix organization
 Matrix Organizations
• Resources shared between the functional unit
and the Project Team.
• Weak Matrix (Functional)
– Functional department has control over their
resources
– Project Manager just serves as a link between
departments and their project deliverables.
• Strong Matrix (Project)
– PM is the key decision-making authority
– Functional managers have a consultative role
 Matrix Organizations
• Strengths
– Suited to dynamic organizations
– Emphasizes dual importance of project
management and functional efficiency
– Maximizes scarce resources
• Weaknesses
– Dual hierarchies mean dual bosses
– More time spent on negotiating for resources
– Difficult for resources caught between project and
functional demands
 Organizational Culture
• Unwritten

• Rules of behavior

• Held by some subset of the organization

• Taught to all new members

 How do Cultures form?
• Technology
• Environment
• Geographical Location
• Reward Systems
• Rules and Procedures
• Key organizational members
• Critical Incidents
 Organizational Culture & Project
Management
• Departmental interaction
• Employee commitment to goals
• Project planning
• Performance evaluation
 People - Interest
High

Tolerate Respect
Capacity

Disdain Pity

Low High
Concern
 steps for a stakeholder analysis
• Stakeholder identification
– internal and external

• Stakeholder expectations and interests

• Stakeholder influence and role in the project

 Stakeholder Identification

• This first step is concerned with the question

“Who are the stakeholders?”

• Draw maps of people or groups and their

relationships.
 Steps
• Identify the Stakeholders
• Determine their individual interest
• Be ready with individual expectations /
requirements
• Determine their potential contribution to the
Project
• Deliberate on the perceived attitudes and/or
adverse actions
• Formulate action plans
 Prepare the list of stakeholders
• Who will be impacted by the project?

• Who will be responsible or accountable for the project?

• Who will have decision authority on the project?

• Who can support the project?

• Who can obstruct the project?

• Who has been involved in this type of project in the past?

 Outcome of Stakeholder analysis

• Apart from an improved ability to negotiate

better requirements-sets

• Basis for two major project management

tools:
– project organization
– the feedback mechanisms.
 Stakeholder Communication Plan Template

Stakeholder Power/ Key Interest Communication Frequency Comments

Interest & Issues Vehicle
Stakeholder Map
Exercise
 Stakeholder Analysis (Power Grid)
High

Manage Closely
Keep Satisfied
Power

Monitor Keep informed

High
Low
Interest
 Stakeholder Analysis (Power Grid)
High
● S8
● S1

Manage Closely
Keep Satisfied
● S4
● S5
Power

● S7 ● S3

Monitor Keep informed

● S6
● S2

Interest High
Low
Map …another method
 Stakeholders Matrices
1. Stakeholders Assessment Matrix
Stakeholder Goals, Power and Importance to and Role on the Win-win
Motivation, Influence Impact on the Project project strategies
Interests (participation)

of each Depends on How to work

Stakeholder the level of with
participation stakeholder
for a win-win
outcome.

2. Stakeholders Reporting Matrix

Stakeholder Reports to receive, Amount of Best Format Frequency of reporting Delivery mechanism
scope of interest detail

Which aspect of Level of Bullet, Weekly, monthly, Email,

the report detail Graphic, daily quarterly etc hardcopy, face
should the narrative to face.
stake holder
receive
Stakeholders Participation Matrix
 Beware of..
• Phantom Stakeholders
– People who are subject to, part of, or impacted by
the project, yet have not formally been identified
by the project manager or project team as
stakeholders
– Look for the root causes
– of surprise changes in the project plan from
unexpected sources
– discrepancies between expected and actual
project execution
 Case – Stakeholder & Objectives
A software house has developed a customized order
processing system for a client. You are an employee of the
software house that has been asked to organize a training
course for the end users of the system. At present , a user
handbook has been produced, but no specific training
material. A plan is now needed for the project which will
setup the delivery of the training courses. The projects can
be assumed to be completed when the first training
course starts. Among other things that will be considered
are the following:
– Training material to be designed and created
– Timetable to be drafted
– Schedule and date
– Decide on participants
– Classrooms and facilities needed …cont’d
 Case – Stakeholder & Objectives

• Identify the stakeholders for this project and

Write down their objectives
• For each objective write down who will be
responsible for the achievement of the
objective.
• https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_07.htm#Interactive