Assessment of stakeholders (analysis)

Developed by Carl Bygum Knudsen

Abstract

The assessment of stakeholders is a crucial element of any project or business strategy. It involves identifying, analyzing, and evaluating the stakeholders’ interests, potential, and influence to determine the best way to manage and interact with them. Stakeholder assessment, in essence, is the categorization and classification of stakeholders in a way that clarifies how each individual stakeholder should be managed.

This wiki article provides a comprehensive overview of the assessment of stakeholders, including a discussion of the key steps involved, some of the tools and techniques used, and the best practices. The article initially explains and discusses the importance of stakeholder assessment in project management.

The critical steps of the assessment process will be discussed followed by the different tools and techniques used to assess stakeholders at each step. The article includes and briefly describe tools that assists the overall process of stakeholder analysis such as brainstorming, various mapping tools, surveys and interviews, and other relevant data collection tools and techniques. The wiki article will touch upon these subjects but focus more on the tools that allow for the assessment of stakeholders such as stakeholder mapping and power-interest grid.

Finally, the wiki article will outline some of the potential challenges and risks associated with stakeholder assessment. These include the potential for conflict of interest, unequal access to resources, and difficulty in managing stakeholders with differing interests. In general, this article provides a comprehensive overview for project managers to understand and implement of the assessment of stakeholders and the key steps, tools, and best practices involved.

Assessment Process

Introduction

Stakeholder assessment is a part of the larger and more complex task of stakeholder management. It is the initial process in stakeholder management of providing a clear understanding of stakeholders' interests and expectations, while stakeholder management is the ongoing process of engaging and satisfying the expectations of stakeholders. To gain a thorough understanding of stakeholder assessment, it is convenient to briefly explain the steps of stakeholder management, before diving further into the assessment of stakeholders.

Brainstorm, identify and document stakeholders

The process of identifying the stakeholders in your project and how they could affect its goals is known as stakeholder identification. Identification of stakeholders is important to any project. This helps ensure that all individuals or groups affected by the project are identified and that their needs and expectations are taken into account, doing this right sets the project up for success. It happens before the stakeholder analysis process and it is a good idea to identify the stakeholders and manage them throughout the whole project life cycle. The stakeholder environment may change as the project moves along, hence the process of identifying stakeholders is an ongoing process. Projects are usually highly complex and challenging in the beginning and it requires a lot of effort to determine who is going to be impacted by the project. Different tools and techniques include*:

• Brainstorming

• Stakeholder Mapping

• Project Charter

• Stakeholder Register

The list is not MECE.

References (In progress - may be subject to change)

1. Bendtsen, E. B., Clausen, L. P. W., & Hansen, S. F. (2021). A review of the state-of-the-art for stakeholder analysis with regard to environmental management and regulation. Journal of Environmental Management, 279.

2. Freeman, R,E. 1984. Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Boston, MA: Pitman

3. Cleland, David. 1994. Project Management: Strategic Design and Implementation. McGraw-Hill Inc.

4. Bonke, S., & Winch, G. (2002). Project Stakeholder Mapping: Analyzing the Interests of Project Stakeholders. In D. P. Slevin, D. I. Cleland, & J. K. Pinto (Eds.), The Frontiers of Project Management Research (pp. 385-405). Project Management Institute, PMI.

5. Bourne, L., & Walker, D. H. T. (2005). Visualising and mapping stakeholder influence. Management Decision, 43(5), 649–660.

6. Slabá, M. (n.d.). Stakeholder profile and stakeholder mapping of SMEs.

7. RIAHI, Y. (2017). Project stakeholders: Analysis and Management Processes. International Journal of Economics and Management Studies, 4(3), 39–45.

8. CRAWLEY MIT – NASA STAKEHOLDER MAP (ref to found)

9. Brugha, R., Varvasovszky, Z. (2000). Stakeholder analysis: a review. Health Policy and Planning, 239–246.