Individuals and organizations that are actively involved in the project, or whose interest may be positively or negatively affected as a result of project execution or project completion; they may also exert influence over the project and its result.

Initially, there was a round robin of Stakeholder examples; Project members, Financial supporters, Clients, Customers, End Users, Standards Groups, Facilities and Safety Departments, Information Technology, CIO, HR, Legal, Independent Auditors.

The group began to then categorize Stakeholders; Internal vs. External, Indirect vs. Direct, passive vs. active, those of influence, those with control and those that just needed to be in the loop and kept informed.

The consensus is that all stakeholders should be identified early in the project and all stakeholders require some level of communication and by identifying this up front you are unlikely to omit a key person or group. A well-defined project scope is a pre-requisite to identifying all the stakeholders of a project.

When picking up a project that is underway it is vital for success to review the project scope and identify all the stakeholders to ensure there are not surprises. Likewise if a new person is hired in the company while the project is in progress it is worth the diligence to ascertain whether this person is a stakeholder that should be added. Finally, seek out resisting stakeholders, those that are not getting involved as you believe they should. Find out what’s in it for them and work to get them engaged.