Stakeholder management: building the right communication plan

Stakeholder management is important in any project, irrespective of its size. It is the lifeblood of project relationships. After all, these individuals and/or groups have significant influence over the project’s success. You need know your stakeholders and their unique communication needs. So just how do you build the right communication plan?

Stakeholder management meaning

Stakeholders are individuals or groups with an interest in a project or programme. Their interests often align, but sometimes they compete or conflict.

Stakeholder management is about easing these tensions. APM defines stakeholder management as “the systematic identification, analysis, planning and implementation of actions that will engage with stakeholders.”

Stakeholder management is comprised of four steps:

1. Identifying stakeholders
2. Assessing their interests and influences
3. Developing communication management plans
4. And, finally, engaging with and influencing stakeholders

How to identify stakeholders

Identifying stakeholders is crucial for the project manager. That’s because all aspects of project planning are based on knowing who the project stakeholders are. After all, how can you plan a project if you don’t know who it’s for?

First, determine who will be impacted by the project and who can be impacted by the project. This includes anyone easily affected by changes that occur with the project management plan or implementation phase.

Identifying stakeholders is just one half of the process. The other is to determine the right amount of focus you, as the project manager, give to each individual or group. By doing so, you mitigate the impact of stakeholders on the project.

So identifying stakeholders isn’t just about drawing up a list. There are tools at the project manager’s disposal, including procurement documentation and enterprise environmental factors. Use these to create a communication management plan.

Communication plan template

The stakeholder communication management plan should be relatively simple and may look something like this:

Stakeholder management skills

Stakeholder management skills mean that a project manager understands who the project stakeholders are, the influence that they hold as well as what drives them, what conflict of interests there are and when there is a need to adopt new strategies. But overall, they will understand the importance of communication with stakeholders too.