To maintain the satisfaction of project stakeholders in the company entails a laborious job and a wide range of strategies to hook them for a longer time. The larger a project is, the more time is needed to be spent in managing project stakeholders and their engagement level. It makes the project more critical and requires a lot of effort to succeed.
The methodologies which are necessary to develop and how control relationships with all individuals create a significant impact to the success of a project. Through learning the techniques for identifying project stakeholders, analyzing their influence on the project, and developing strategies to communicate, set boundaries, and manage competing expectations will drive the project to be accomplished at the desired amount of time with the expected results.
By successfully managing project stakeholders, the scope creep will keep its right track in the process. The project managers need to ensure that the project requirements are aligned, and they must possess tolerance for risk, and mitigate issues that would otherwise delay the project. Good project stakeholder management is a key component to a healthy project environment. As the project manager, for a coveted account he is excited for the opportunity of a new project, but anxious for a good outcome. The project team is assembled and you have every confidence that they will help the manager successfully meet and exceed the client’s expectations. It is important that the team is motivated in achieving the goals of the project.
By properly managing the project stakeholders’ expectations from the outset, creates more chances for smoother flow of the project process and keep its scope creep.
- Identify who the project stakeholders are and their needs. The project stakeholders have a direct impact on the project processes due to their active involvement. Their performance and interests affect the flow of the processes and the manager has to ensure that these are aligned with the organizational and operational objectives of the company. There will be a need to identify the not so obvious stakeholders as well. These are quiet people who do participate in active discussions and neglecting them may bring negative impact to the project. Keep brainstorming for other quiet, but important stakeholders.
- Identify the project stakeholder’s preferred method of communication. Communication skills are applied when managing your stakeholders. The manager has to be keen on their needs by promoting an open communication with them. Build trust through attentive listening and keep them informed of the changes and event in the project. The most effective manner of communication will help ensure the stakeholder remains content. There may be some resistance coming from them and therefore the manager has to help them overcome it. Conflict resolution skills play a vital role on this part. A manager may talk to them one by one, or through large groups by making presentations. It may be needed to reach them through other mediums like email. The manager must careful to avoid communication breakdown. Miscommunication will lead to dissatisfaction of the stakeholders.
- Keep the project stakeholders engaged throughout the process with timely updates. The project manager might have the need to have individual discussions with some of the stakeholders to ensure that the fully understand situations. Explain fully the whole scenario when they cannot have what they want. Ask the right questions, of the right people, at the beginning and throughout the project when possible.
- Create a clear cut boundaries based on the project stakeholders’ level of understanding. If there is a concern that arises, clarify it with them and try to resolve it in a timely manner. Do it as soon as possible to avoid delays. Their expectations must be clear to the management and provide the measures on how these will be assessed. There are times that there will be different perspective and different views on how to make the project succeed. Some people will make something a priority contradicting of that from someone else. They may have different preferences when it comes to the implementation of methodologies and these must be carefully looked into.
- Value the project stakeholders regardless of their role or their level of significance to the project. Regardless of their background, project stakeholders must be treated fairly with the utmost transparency coming from the management.
- Make sure that the strategies to be employed are flexible enough especially for those who are potential blockers to the success of the project. A systematic selection of the methods will save time in choosing a new one.
- Make sure to involve the project stakeholders in every decision making to undertake. Clearly define the potential project value of a suggestion before arriving at the final decision.
- Project stakeholders are not always after of the big sum of sales but the strategies that the team has executed in order to achieve the desired outcomes. The project manager has to initiate a dialog to determine the value and the impact of the strategies being used.
In most organizations, their attention span is short. Those long projects will require patience form the end of the project stakeholders. As a project manager, he has to keep the stakeholder interested to take part in the process. Otherwise, it is going to be successful in whatever kind of project.
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