Expectations Management

Abstract

As stated in the The 5th edition of PMBOK from the Project Management Institute (PMI), "It is critical for project success to identify the stakeholders early in the project or phase and to analyze their levels of interest, their individual expectations, as well as their importance and influence." This article will focus on the individual expectations aspect mentioned. To do so, some basic concepts on stakeholder management will be introduced and explained as a basis for the core of the article

How different stakeholders will have different expectations within a project, how these stakeholders need to be categorized based on the interest and influence on the project, and how to successfully manage the expectations of different types of stakeholders.

Different methods and tools on how to align and manage expectations are introduced and explained. Furthermore, those methods are categorized based on when in the process they are relevant and for what type of stakeholder they are relevant. Limitations and weaknesses of each method are examined and suggestions on how to avoid them given.

Introduction

In the context of project management, expectations management relates to the stakeholders in the project, which then is a concept within the general concept of stakeholder management. ISO 21500 defines a stakeholder as, "Person, group or organization that has interests in, or can affect, be affected by or perceived itself to be affected by, any aspect of the project. . Furthermore, recent literature suggests that project success is in large a result of stakeholder management. One could even argue that a project ending up with all the stakeholders happy is a job well done.

As expectations management is different between the different types of stakeholders, a closer look will be taken into stakeholder management to establish the ground.

Identifying the stakeholders of a project is of great importance, especially the ones who are defined as the major stakeholders.

The stakeholder circle is a methodology designed to include stakeholder management in project management. This methodology has the following five steps in terms of stakeholders: Identify, prioritize, visualize, engage and monitor the stakeholders. The first step here is very relevant for this article. Identifying the projects stakeholders and understanding their needs will play a key role in understanding and managing their expectations throughout the project.

The methodology categorizes stakeholders according to directions of influence (002517) These directions are: upwards (senior managers), downwards (the team), sidewards (peers of the PM) and outwards (outside the activity).

the iron triangle of the project environment states that success equals "On time, on budget and delivering the specified scope"

Knowing who the important stakeholders are early in the life of the work, and knowing their expectations, ensures that conflicts can be recognized and addressed proactively.

Application

Stakeholder identification

Once the stakeholders have been identified by any of the mentioned methods, they need to be categorized into specific groups. One of the methodology addressing this is the stakeholder circle. . One of the tools represented here is identification, where the stakeholders are split into 4 types from the perspective of the project manager.

• Upwards: Senior managers
• Downwards: Members of the project team
• Outwards: External stakeholders such as end users, governments, unions, shareholders e.c.
• Sidewards: Peers of the project manager, such as other project managers.