Stakeholders are individuals and teams who are affected by the change.
Lets Define Stakeholder Assessment and Analysis
Stakeholder assessment identifies these people before the start of the project, classifying them according to their levels of participation, interest, and influence in the project, and planning how to include and communicate each of these stakeholder groups effectively.
Stakeholder analysis determines what “stake” is “held” by whom in a project.
Stakeholders might include many individuals and organizations. There is a need to know which ones are vital and should be involved minimally.
Purpose of Stakeholder Assessment
Stakeholder Assessment may be conducted by project managers, program managers, and the change management team for a variety of strategic objectives, including:
1. To enlist the assistance of critical members of the organization
By enlisting the support of executives and senior leaders or other influential stakeholders early in the project, you may benefit from their experience and knowledge in guiding the project to a successful conclusion.
Engaging these players early on, you’ll have a better chance of gaining their support for your project.
2. To achieve early alignment on goals and agendas among all stakeholders
You’ll be able to get these individuals together for a launch and early-stage meetings to discuss the project’s strategic objectives and plans. These groups also provide input for various change activities, communications, engagement, training, and sustainment plans.
3. To assist in the early resolution of disagreements or concerns
You and your team may be far into a project before you realize a key individual in your organization—perhaps some members of the leadership team—do not understand the value of your initiative. They might prefer to redeploy some of your resources to other initiatives, and they may intentionally try to sabotage or derail your effort.
Stakeholder assessment and analysis provide you with early information. You recognize that this executive is possibly essential to the success of your project if you had completed a stakeholder analysis before you started.
After that, you may have presented your idea to the executive, listened to their concerns, and tried to gain their consent to move forward.
Stakeholder Analysis Process: Key Steps:
(1) Identifying Key Stakeholders: A Step-by-Step Procedure
Your first step in conducting a stakeholder analysis will be to compile a list of important stakeholders.
Managers, senior managers, business leaders, executives and clients who may have a stake in the business or technological transformation will be included.
The distinction between a key stakeholder and a non-key stakeholder is that a key stakeholder has a more significant impact on the project. This might be because their teams will have increased workloads during the transition. They might also be a senior executive or sponsor accountable for the project’s budget and timeframe.
There are several tasks involved in completing this process:
- Identify stakeholders to include in your stakeholder matrix with the help of the project team, programme managers, and major sponsors.
- Examine organizational charts for essential managers to include on your list.
- Conduct a change impact analysis or prepare a heat map to determine which groups will be affected and to what extent.
- Collaborate with subject matter experts and managers across impacted businesses to identify additional essential stakeholders for the project management stakeholder matrix.
- Go over the project charter, statement of work, and any other documents to see if there are any more stakeholders you can add to your list.
(2) Identify Other Project Stakeholders
The next step is to identify other project stakeholders who may not have as much influence as “key” stakeholders but still need to be evaluated and managed.
Employees are the most common, but vendors and customers can also be involved, depending on the type of change that is taking place. In a stakeholder analysis, it may be more appropriate to identify customers as a group rather than individually if customers are impacted.
(3) Stakeholder Mapping Matrix
You should create your stakeholder analysis mapping template before or while completing the above stakeholder assessment tasks.
You should document the following pieces of stakeholder analysis information:
· Stakeholder types
· First and last names of stakeholders
· Contact information for stakeholders
· Stakeholder divisions, departments, and groups
· Perceptions of the change among stakeholders
It’s critical to document each stakeholder’s current state and future, outlining how you want them to demonstrate the changed conduct.
Is a particular stakeholder, for example, currently in favour of the change, or are they resisting it? That stakeholder’s current level will determine the status of engagement and management for a stakeholder.
You’ll also have to map out each stakeholder’s ability to influence the project, and this data will inform your engagement strategy for each stakeholder.
If a stakeholder who can influence the change is resisting it, for example, you’ll need to devise a strategy to gain their buy-in, or at the very least bring them down from a high level of resistance to a low level of resistance.
(4) Additional Assessment of Your Identified Stakeholders
Assessing each stakeholder’s organizational change management competency will be the next step in your stakeholder mapping and assessment exercise.
This must be done and documented to determine which stakeholders require change coaching or additional support to be effective change sponsors.
Change managers meet with business managers, functional leads, and primary sponsors to socialize the stakeholder matrix. They gather input and feedback before finalizing engagement activities.
Building a Stakeholder Coalition
It is a group of influential stakeholders brought into the project’s “inner circle” or core team specifically to focus on strengthening change momentum.
This group participates in planning exercises and provides input and feedback. Kotter (2012, p. 56) also refers to this group as a “volunteer army.”
This group is strategically engaged to perpetuate and support the change with various stakeholder groups throughout the organization.
They serve as an essential link to higher-risk areas identified and demonstrate support for the project or program.