Stakeholder Project Goals

Quick reference

• 00:05 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen and we've already talked some about stakeholders.
• 00:09 Now, lets talk about finding out their goals and
• 00:12 what they consider to be a project success.
• 00:15 Stakeholder's goals are not always the same as the project team's goals.
• 00:21 I discussed this earlier, but let's look at it again.
• 00:24 Project team members are often focused on project management success.
• 00:29 They strive to complete everything in the project scope on time and on budget.
• 00:35 This is often accomplished by managing the project well using best practices.
• 00:39 Stakeholders are more interested in what we term a project success.
• 00:44 They wanna be sure that the business realizes the hope for business benefits.
• 00:48 They want the business to get the expected new sales from the product.
• 00:51 While they expect the cost savings from the process improvement.
• 00:55 This is the reason the stakeholders originally approve the project.
• 00:59 Often, they had these benefits already baked into their business forecast.
• 01:04 And some projects consider success to be the new strategy implemented.
• 01:08 This strategy can transform some aspects of the business
• 01:12 creating further opportunities.
• 01:14 A project can be a success on one level, a failure in another.
• 01:17 I have managed project that finished late and overrun.
• 01:21 A project management failure, yet they exceeded the expectations on sales, and
• 01:25 the stakeholders view is that the project was a success.
• 01:29 I have also completed a project on time and on budget.
• 01:32 But they never achieved the promise cost savings and
• 01:35 stakeholders consider them a failure.
• 01:37 I've even had a project that was both a project management failure, and
• 01:42 a project failure.
• 01:43 But because the new product opened up an entirely new market for
• 01:46 the company, it was a corporate success.
• 01:49 This project did not make money, but allowed us to start selling many
• 01:52 other products into that market which did make money for the company.
• 01:57 Let's discuss the stakeholder perspective on project success
• 02:00 in a little more detail.
• 02:02 Stakeholders particularly senior management,
• 02:04 typically view project success on three levels.
• 02:07 The first level is business benefits.
• 02:10 That is often the reason that the project was originally approved.
• 02:13 There is some financial benefit, or possibly a quality benefit.
• 02:17 Sometimes it was to put a new system or capability in place
• 02:20 that changes the organization or it could have been to resolve a compliance problem.
• 02:25 But many stakeholders also are looking for a functional success.
• 02:29 They hope that the project will keep the people in their function busy and
• 02:33 employing best practices, so that they can improve their skills and grow and
• 02:36 develop their workforce.
• 02:39 Many stakeholders live in that personal issues and
• 02:41 concerns that could be impacted by that project.
• 02:44 They may see the project as an avenue for a promotion, or
• 02:47 they maybe counting on the benefits to impact the business performance to ensure
• 02:50 that they get their bonus check.
• 02:52 Of course other times, the personal concern maybe that the project
• 02:55 is a distraction or preventing them from achieving a personal objective.
• 03:00 Their personal goal for project may even be never to have to attend the meeting or
• 03:03 make a decision about the project.
• 03:05 Each stakeholder will have their own unique prospective on what will constitute
• 03:09 project success.
• 03:11 When we discuss stakeholder identification I introduced a stakeholder register that
• 03:15 means to track stakeholder and their communication strategy.
• 03:19 One of the columns in the register is the goal that each stakeholder has for
• 03:22 the project.
• 03:24 After considering these three levels of project success,
• 03:27 you can complete that column on your stakeholder register.
• 03:31 So this leads to the question, how do you engage the stakeholders who are distracted
• 03:35 or who don't see a significant success in the project?
• 03:38 I used this chart as a way to understand the level if engagement
• 03:42 in the stakeholders and what I should do about it.
• 03:44 A caution with this chart, it can be politically sensitive.
• 03:48 So I use this in informal discussion with core team members, not a formal analysis.
• 03:53 The chart maps the current level of stakeholder engagement and support for
• 03:56 the project as compared to the level that is needed for project success.
• 04:00 I place a C in their column for their current commitment.
• 04:03 And a D in their column for their desired commitment.
• 04:07 A comment about their current commitment
• 04:10 is based upon what they actually do not what they say.
• 04:13 If they say they are 100% in favor of the project, but
• 04:16 don't assign the required resources, I place them at neutral.
• 04:21 For the three stakeholders on the project, there appeared to be a few gaps.
• 04:25 Julius Caesar is unaware, but needs to be supportive.
• 04:28 King Tut is neutral and needs to be leading.
• 04:31 While Attila the Hun is right where you need him, supportive.
• 04:36 In order to engage the stakeholder,
• 04:38 you need to look at what they consider to be a project success.
• 04:42 They may just need to understand how this project will meet their personal goals and
• 04:46 objectives.
• 04:47 But often, I find that if a project is slightly modified a resistant stakeholder
• 04:52 can become supportive and a neutral will begin to lead.
• 04:56 The key is to understand the stakeholder's objective and
• 04:58 structure project deliverables and
• 05:00 project plan in a manner that is likely to achieve those objectives.
• 05:04 So once the gaps are identified,
• 05:06 you need to determine the actions that will close those gaps.
• 05:10 Either adding or subtracting from the project scopes, schedule, and
• 05:13 resources, or changing how you interact with the stakeholders.
• 05:16 In our example, we need to schedule a meeting with Julius Caesar so
• 05:20 that he will become aware of how the project will meet his objectives.
• 05:24 For King Tut, it's a different issue, he likes the project,
• 05:27 but it conflicts with another project in his department.
• 05:30 And he does not have the resources to do both.
• 05:33 If we change the end date of some tasks in the project, they'll no longer conflict
• 05:37 and we will gain his supportive leadership on the project.
• 05:40 And finally for
• 05:41 Attila, no action is required to gain his support, he's already with us.
• 05:46 Once I understand that stakeholder view a project a success, I often can modify
• 05:50 the project slightly, or engage them in a way to win their support.
• 05:56 Having stakeholder supporting the project are very helpful when project
• 06:00 team is in the day to day grind of completing the project activities.

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