Locked lesson.

Upgrade

About this lesson

Many stakeholders have additional goals for a project beyond the primary business goal. Understanding those goals can help the team ensure project success and maintain stakeholder support.

Quick reference

Stakeholder's Project Goals

Many stakeholders have additional goals for a project beyond the primary business goal.  Understanding those goals can help the team ensure project success and maintain stakeholder support.

When to use

When the Stakeholder Register is first created, the stakeholder goal(s) should be identified.  Whenever there is a change in stakeholders, the goal of the new stakeholder should be determined.  At the beginning of each major phase of a project, the stakeholder goals should be confirmed to determine if there have been changes.

Instructions

Determining stakeholder goals is often as easy as just asking them.  They will of course want the business benefits, but ask them what would make this an exemplary project in their mind, and what makes this a project failure.  If you are unable to ask the stakeholders directly, review their attitude and actions on other similar projects and infer their likely goals.

Stakeholder Viewpoint

The stakeholder viewpoint of project success is often different from the project team.  Many times the project team is focused on project management success, meaning the project finishes on time, on budget, and meets all the quality requirements.   However, stakeholders are usually much more interested in the project goal (not the project management goal).  They are less interested in on-time and on-budget than they are in the business benefit that will be derived from the project.  They want the sales increase, the cost savings, or the new capabilities that come from the project.  In some cases, the project is being used to initiate a new strategy.  These projects are often project management failures because of the difficulty of changing the strategic direction within an organization, but if they are successful at introducing the new strategy, they may still be viewed as a success by the senior management stakeholders.

Personal and Business Goals

Personal goals are often even more important to some stakeholders than business goals.  When possible you should ensure the project also meets the personal goals of stakeholders.  Often these can be accommodated with very little effort but will lead to strong stakeholder support.  For example:

  • You may have a team member who is hoping to use this project as a step for promotion.  They will probably want an opportunity to showcase their skills with senior management.
  • You may have a stakeholder who is primarily responsible for managing a portion of the organization and views this project as an irritant.  They will want the project to make as few demands as possible on their time and attention.
  • You may have a stakeholder who is trying to use the project to further another initiative.  They may want to modify the project slightly to align it with their initiative.
  • You may have stakeholders who are responsible for other large projects or initiatives.  They want your project to not interfere with their project, and if possible enhance the likelihood of success on the other project.

Stakeholder Engagement Matrix

The Stakeholder Engagement Matrix is an excellent tool for identifying where there is a problem with stakeholder goal alignment.  For each stakeholder assess their level of current support for the project and their level of required support for the project to succeed.  Where there is a gap between the current and desired state, create an action to align the project and stakeholder goals.  

Stakeholder Unaware Resistant Neutral Supports Leading Action
Sun Tzu C     D   meeting on 10/4
King Tut     C   D Modify end date
Attila the Hun       C,D   None

 

 

Hints & tips

  • Don’t jeopardize the “project success” to achieve a “project management success.”  The senior management stakeholders will quickly forget about project management success, but they remember project success.
  • Leverage personal goals to gain support for the project.  Everyone has them, if you leverage them, you will have a more loyal team or more interested senior stakeholders.
  • When determining the current state for a stakeholder on the engagement matrix, pay attention to what they do, not what they say.  If they say they fully support the project, but never attend meetings or assign resources to the project they are at best Neutral. 
Login to download
  • 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:06 We've already talked some about stakeholders.
  • 00:08 Now, let's talk about finding out their goals and
  • 00:11 what they consider to be a project success.
  • 00:14 Stakeholder's goals are not always the same as the project team's goals.
  • 00:19 I discussed this earlier, but let's look at it again.
  • 00:22 Project team members are often focused on a project management success.
  • 00:26 They strive to complete everything in the project scope on time and on budget.
  • 00:30 That's often accomplished by managing the project well using best practices.
  • 00:36 Stakeholders are more interested in what we term a project success instead of
  • 00:40 a project management success.
  • 00:42 They want to make sure the business realizes the hope for business benefits.
  • 00:46 That the business gets expected sales from the new product or
  • 00:49 the expected cost savings from the new process improvement.
  • 00:53 That is the reason the stakeholders originally approved the project.
  • 00:57 Often, they have these benefits baked into their business forecast.
  • 01:01 And some projects consider success to be if a new strategy is implemented.
  • 01:06 This strategy can transform some aspects of the business creating further
  • 01:10 opportunities.
  • 01:12 This type of project is very difficult, because it often requires that you
  • 01:16 change a corporate culture, in addition to the technical project work.
  • 01:20 A project can be successful at one level and a failure at another.
  • 01:24 I've managed projects that finished late and overrun a project management failure,
  • 01:29 yet they exceeded the expectations on sales, and
  • 01:31 the stakeholders viewed the project as a success.
  • 01:35 I've also completed projects on time on budget, but they never
  • 01:38 achieved the promise business impact, and stakeholders consider them a failure.
  • 01:44 I even had a project that was both a project management failure and
  • 01:47 a project failure.
  • 01:49 But because this new product opened up an entirely new market for the company,
  • 01:53 it was a strategic success.
  • 01:55 The project did not make much money, but allowed us to start selling many other
  • 01:59 products into the market, which did make money for the company.
  • 02:03 Let's discuss the stakeholder perspective on project success in a little
  • 02:07 more detail.
  • 02:08 Stakeholders particularly senior managers,
  • 02:11 typically view project success on three levels.
  • 02:14 The first is the business benefits,
  • 02:16 this is often the reason the project was originally approved.
  • 02:19 There is some financial benefit or possibly a quality benefit.
  • 02:24 Sometimes it was to put a system or
  • 02:26 capability in place that change the organization.
  • 02:29 Or it could have been to resolve a compliance problem.
  • 02:33 But many stakeholders also, are looking for a functional success.
  • 02:38 They hope that the project will keep the people in their function
  • 02:41 busy in employing best practices.
  • 02:43 So they can improve their skills and grow and develop their workforce.
  • 02:48 Many stakeholders will even have a personal issue and
  • 02:52 concerns that could be impacted by the project.
  • 02:54 They may see the project as an avenue to a promotion.
  • 02:58 Or they are counting on the benefits of impacting their business, and
  • 03:01 ensuring that they get their bonus check.
  • 03:04 Of course other times, the personal concerns maybe that the project is
  • 03:08 a distraction and preventing them from achieving their personal objectives.
  • 03:13 Their personal goal for the project maybe to never have to attend a meeting or
  • 03:17 make a decision about the entire thing.
  • 03:19 Each stakeholder will have their own unique perspective on what would
  • 03:23 constitute project success or project failure.
  • 03:26 When we discussed stakeholder identification, I introduced a stakeholder
  • 03:30 register as a means to track the stakeholders and a communication strategy.
  • 03:35 One of the columns in the register is the goal that each stakeholder has for
  • 03:39 the project.
  • 03:40 After considering these three levels of project success,
  • 03:44 you can complete that column on your stakeholder register.
  • 03:47 So, this leads to the question,
  • 03:49 how do we engage the stakeholders who are distracted?
  • 03:52 Or who don't see significant success in the project?
  • 03:56 I use this chart as a way to understand the level of engagement in
  • 03:59 the stakeholder, and what I should do about it.
  • 04:02 A caution with this chart, it can become politically sensitive.
  • 04:06 So I use this information in discussions with core team members,
  • 04:09 b ut not as a formal analysis.
  • 04:11 This chart maps the current level of stakeholders support and engagement for
  • 04:15 the project as compared to the level that is needed for project success.
  • 04:20 I placed a C in the column for their current commitment,
  • 04:23 and a D in the column for their desired commitment.
  • 04:26 A comment about the current commitment,
  • 04:29 it's based upon what they do not what they say.
  • 04:32 If they say they're 100% in favor of the project, but
  • 04:36 don't assign any resources, I placed them at a neutral.
  • 04:40 For these three stakeholders on this project there appears to be a few gaps.
  • 04:44 Sun Tzu is unaware, but needs to be supportive.
  • 04:48 King Tut is neutral and needs to be leading.
  • 04:51 While Attila the Hun support is right where you need him.
  • 04:54 In order to engage the stakeholders,
  • 04:56 you need to look at what they consider to be a project success.
  • 05:00 They may just need to understand that the project will meet their goals and
  • 05:04 objectives.
  • 05:05 But often, I find that if the project is slightly modified, a resistance
  • 05:08 stakeholder can become a supporter and a neutral will begin to lead.
  • 05:13 The key is to understand the stakeholder's objectives and
  • 05:15 structure the project deliverables or boundaries and
  • 05:18 the project plan in a manner that is likely to achieve those objectives.
  • 05:22 So once the gaps are identified,
  • 05:24 you need to determine the action that closes the gaps.
  • 05:26 Either adding or subtracting from the project's scope, schedule, and resources,
  • 05:30 or changing how you interact with the stakeholders.
  • 05:34 In our example, we need to schedule a meeting with Sun Tzu, so
  • 05:37 that he will become aware of how the project will meet his objectives.
  • 05:41 For King Tut, it's a different issue.
  • 05:44 He likes to project, but it's in conflict with another project in his department,
  • 05:48 and he does not have the resources to do both.
  • 05:51 If we change the end date on the project, it will no longer conflict, and
  • 05:54 we will gain his supportive leadership on the project.
  • 05:57 Finally, for Attila the Hun no action is required to gain his support,
  • 06:02 we already have it with us.
  • 06:03 Once I understand the stakeholders view of project success,
  • 06:07 I often can modify the project slightly in a way to win their support.
  • 06:12 Having stakeholders supporting the project are very helpful when the project team is
  • 06:17 in the day-to-day grind of completing the project activities.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

PMI, PMP, CAPM and PMBOK are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

Gift this course