prakalp · prakalp - pmi mumbai chapter journal volume 14 - issue 4: october 2012 dear friends, our...

PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE - Mumbai ChapterUnit No. 642, Mainframe 1-B Wing, Royal Palm (India), Aarey Milk Colony, Goregaon (E), Mumbai - 400065Tel. +91-22-28792194 | Website: www.pmimumbaichapter.org | Email Id: [email protected]

Prakalp - PMI Mumbai Chapter JournalVolume 14 - Issue 4: October 2012www.prakalponline.com

StakeholderManagement

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Prakalp - PMI Mumbai Chapter JournalVolume 14 - Issue 4: October 2012

“To be recognized as

the organization of choice by

evangelizing Project Management”.

ßEvangelize project Management

across industry, academia,

community and government.

ßProvide a forum for project

management professionals to

promote the principles and

ethical standards of PMI.

ßPromote networking among

professionals, sharing project

experiences and best practices,

imparting training and enabling

PMI certifications.

ßP r o v i d e d e v e l o p m e n t o f

leadership skills among its

volunteer leaders, members and

society at large, and thereby

enhancing quality of life.

Disclaimer

The information contained in this document represents the views of individual writers on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. It should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of PMI Mumbai Chapter, and PMI Mumbai Chapter cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented in this publication.

This Journal is for informational purposes only.

PMI MUMBAI CHAPTER MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS JOURNAL.

Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of PMI Mumbai Chapter. Some data or images used in this journal could be registered trademarks or property of their respective owners. PMI Mumbai Chapter does not claim any rights for the use of same as it is an office of no profit serving the growth of Project Management profession across the region. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the reader

CONTENTS

Page 3 President’s Message

Page 4 Editorial

Page 5 Stakeholder Management for the Newbie

PM

Page 6 Region 11 Meeting at Chennai

Page 7 Engaging Stakeholders for Project Success

Page 8&9 PMI Mumbai Chapter ce lebra tes

International P roject Management Day

Page 10 PM or SME?

Page 11 Stakeholder

Page 13 Assignment: SBP – CENTRE FOR

CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Page 14 Stakeholder Management

Theme :

Insights to Project Management

Bharat Bhagat Advisor

Tejas Sura Advisor

R V Joshi Advisor

Dattatray Pathak Advisor

Rakesh Gupta President

Dr. Sanjay Buch Secretary

Saurabh Parikh VP Certification Training

Amithanand D'silva VP Finance

Anjana Rao VP Corporate Relations

Rajesh Rupani VP Publications

Pradeep Sonawane VP Programs

Mitra Wani VP Communications

Kamal Jeswani VP Volunteer Development

Manish Nihal VP Membership

Jay Rawal VP Branches

Ajit Shah Ethics Committee

Jacob Zachariah Ethics Committee

Publication Team:

Rajesh Rupani

Mohammed Babrawala

Shailesh Helekar

Jhumur Mitra


Dear Friends,

Our editor suggested that I write a note for this edition which focusses on stakeholder

management. Looking at the immense knowledge that our fraternity has, I sometimes

wonder what I should write. Based on what little I have understood, I would like to

share a few thoughts and hope that they either resonate or provide you some positive

input for change.

We have heard of the quotes like Customer is God. Customer is King. Mahatma Gandhi

clearly articulates how the business is dependent on the customer. There could be times

when the demand was more than supply and in such a scenario this may not be entirely

true. However in today’s environment where we are spoilt for choices for goods and

services business focus on customer needs/experience is very high.

Some of you might have come across the book title “Employees First”. Some of us had a

privilege of listening to the Author of the book Mr Vineet Nayar at the PMI National

Conference held at Chennai in September 2012. He is at the helm of affairs of leading IT

Services Company and believes empowering his employees who in turn are delivering

to the customer needs.

Most of the employees besides serving their employer also have to cater to the needs of

their families. Family is an important stakeholder for them and therefore their well-

being has an indirect impact on the employer, the project team and the project.

In today’s scenario where we are see new global challenges in terms of climate change,

global warming the importance of sustainable development and green project

management is ever increasing. This increases the impact that these stakeholders could

have on our projects.

Stakeholder management is a key skill that every project management needs to hone to

remain relevant to organizations and society at large. This may mean for example

improving active listening skills. Improved ability in understanding stakeholder

perspective could help in coming up with the relevant communication strategies to

meet stakeholder expectations.

We can learn to identify the stakeholders, come up with the stakeholder management

strategy and the communication plan to get co-operation of all stakeholders in

achieving the project outcome. One key ingredient for the successful stakeholder

management for the PM would be the persistence required to overcome obstacles in

dealing with complexity in stakeholder expectations.

PMI and chapter have a lot to offer in terms of networking and knowledge. Urge all

readers to take maximum advantage of the opportunities that we endeavour to provide.

We have an upcoming annual conference called PMCONCLAVE 2012 focusing on

Delivering Business Results through Agility. Look forward to meeting you.

Best Regards

Rakesh Gupta

President, PMI Mumbai Chapter,

President's Message

Stakeholder

management

is a key skill

that every project

management needs

to hone to remain

relevant to

organizations and

society at large.

3

Dear Readers,

All of us at Mumbai chapter are up on gears for the biggest event of the chapter – PM

Conclave 2012. This year the event is scheduled on the 1st and 2nd of December at

Hyatt Regency. With more than 400 professionals attending – PMI Mumbai chapter is

all set to welcome and shower our guests with our own personal hospitality.

While we were in the preparing stages, we were interacting with multiple

stakeholders. This is when the idea for the theme of current edition emerged -

Stakeholder Management. Each day we have been surrounded by Stakeholders – both

positive and negative. Managing stakeholders thus becomes the most important

aspect of Project Management and is a skill each Project Manager should possess.

In the next few pages you will find perspectives on Stakeholder Management from our

membership. Some very subtle nuances of Stakeholder management emerges out of

these articles and I am sure you will enjoy reading them.

Do let us know your experiences on Prakalp. Our teams are putting a lot of energy to

get this through to you and we believe you enjoy reading it too.

While I pen down, let me wish you all a lot of good health and prosperity during the

season of festivities. The entire board and team of volunteers get together to wish all

the readers a very Happy Diwali.

Regards,

Rajesh Rupani

VP- Publications

PMI Mumbai Chapter

Editorial

Each day we

have been surrounded

by Stakeholders –

both positive & negative.

Managing stakeholders

thus becomes

the most important aspect

of Project Management

and is a skill each

Project Manager

should possess.

4


“PMI Mumbai Chapter and the Publications team

Wishes all readers

the best compliments of the season

A newly appointed PM has to contend with multiple issues

and gear up to do battle on several fronts be it estimations,

resources, space crunch, technology, team handling, client

management etc. This article aims to give some pointers and

identify some pitfalls related to stakeholder management.

The stakeholders most PMs have to deal with are –

• Senior Management

• Project Team Members

• Client Representative

• Support Departments

• Vendors

Senior Management

All activities of a new PM are keenly followed by senior

management and the entire organization. The first step in the

takeover of an existing project would be to check if the initial

project documents like Mission statement, work order from

client etc. are in place. Many a times a long duration project

has seen several handovers as new PMs got allocated and the

existing ones moved on either to other projects or

organizations, but the Mission statement, work order are

missing. The project continues functioning as some kind of

umbrella agreement for multiple projects exists. In such cases

quickly pursue the client manager and create and finalize

these documents with the mutual agreement of both parties.

This will send out a strong message to the senior management

that the new project manager has indeed taken charge of the

project.

Project Team Members

Senior members in a project team often vie for the attention of

the project manager and to prove their worth they sometimes

get into fights or arguments with other members. When

technical issues arise, team members suggest different

solutions and sometimes they are so desperate for their

solution to be adopted that they declare all out war against the

opposite party. The best way to handle such situations is to get

them to list the pros and cons of their solution and after a

healthy debate select the best solution. Counsel both parties

that they should not get emotional about it and the solution

which is finally selected has to be in the best interests of the

project. Possibly the client will also have a say as it may affect

the cost of the project.

Client Representative

There is a saying,”The customer is always right.” In case of

Stakeholder Management for the Newbie PM

stakeholder management many a times the client has to be

told by the PM that he/she is not right and there is a better way

of doing the job. It is better to be honest albeit in a diplomatic

way and ensure that whatever is in the best interests of the

project is implemented. For example, if a key person from the

client side is planning to go on vacation at a critical time in the

project, it is best to tell them upfront that he better postpone

his vacation as the project is likely to suffer. If there are issues

in the project which will affect either the quality or the

timeline then it is advisable to communicate this to the client

representative along with a mitigation plan.

Support Departments

A smooth interface with the various support departments like

HR, Admin, Hardware support etc. is critical for getting the

project off the ground and later on during execution. Building

rapport with the personnel in these departments could ensure

better and quicker support for your project. New project

managers are often in demand for conducting interviews.

Recruitment team members often pursue new project

managers to conduct interviews on weekends. So a balancing

act has to be done so that the project does not suffer.

Vendors

A PM may have to deal with Vendors in case some part of the

project has been subcontracted and is being executed by a

vendor. In some cases some software, hardware required in

the project is supplied by a vendor and in a small organization

the PM may have to deal with the vendor directly in case of

any issues. Constant and clear communication with the

vendor via email etc and quick escalation is the best way to

handle these stakeholders.

There is no substitute for experience, so the newbie PM

should continuously read articles and books on this and try to

implement the tactics suggested in the project to gain a

firsthand experience of what works and what doesn’t.

About the Author

Nilima Prabhu has been working in the field of

software for the past 17+ years. She has worked

as a Senior Project Manager handling multiple

projects on various platforms like Java/J2EE,

Visual Basic etc. and using Oracle, SQL Server,

Sybase. She has worked mainly in Insurance and Banking

domains.


5

A 2-day program was conducted under the aegis of Group -11

of PMI Asia Pacific, at Chennai on 27th and 28th of September

2012, as a prelude to the 2012 Conclave of PMI India. The

number of attendees was 77, and out of this, 17 were from

Mumbai chapter itself. Tejas Sura as Mentor for Region 11 was

at the helm of affairs.

It is good to know here the composition of Asia Pacific region

of PMI. It has 4 regions:

1. Region 9: Northeast Asia

2. Region 10: Australasia

3. Region 11: Western Asia

4. Region 15: Southeast Asia

Region 11 comprises of members from India, Sri Lanka,

Bangladesh and Pakistan. There were some representatives

from Sri Lanka and a sole participant from Bangladesh too.

The meeting kicked off at 11 on 27th with an introduction

followed by lunch.

On 27th of September

1. Tejas Sura gave a explanation of the working of Region 11,

which was an insight for me! He explained the set up of

PMI worldwide and the context of Region 11 and PMI

–India in it.

2. Ms. Raseena Abdullah explained the context of Region -11

in the Asia-Pacific scenario. She operates from Singapore.

3. Mr. Craig Killough of PMI International addressed the

gathering. He dwelt on the importance of REP (Registered

Educational Partner) and the need for the local chapters to

collaborate with the REPs.

4. The local chapter, PMI Chennai explained the importance

of Volunteerism in PMI. They pointed out that the

conclave is now ready to wow the 1200 delegated only

because the efforts put in by the volunteers. Many were

the inspiring stories told about the depth and valor of the

volunteers in the days running to the conclave D-day.

5. Mumbai Chapter presented a case showcasing the close

interaction with the student community with respect to

NMIMS, Vile Parle. The audience appreciated the various

activities that the Student chapter is involved in, with

special emphasis on Ideate and developing a curriculum.

This is a first of its kind in this region and some other

chapters showed interest in duplicating the idea in their

own cities.

6. Mr. Brijesh of Kerala chapter articulated the TECHGIG

and Prof. Rastogi of Peral City Chapter spoke on the

PMIEF. (Project Management International Education

Fund) . PMIEF is doing yeomen service for

Region 11 Meeting at Chennai

6


underprivileged students in Africa. Some ideas were

exchanged on how to make PMIEF more relevant in the

Indian context.

7. Tejas Sura then surmised the various platforms and

discussions and took feedback. The delegates then

proceeded for dinner and cocktail.

On 28th of September

1. The 2nd day commenced early at 8.30 a.m. Rena Striegal

of BNI (a networking institution) was the guest speaker

with a slot of 2 hours. She enthralled the audience with a

lecture on dos and don’ts on networking. Many agreed

that this was the highlight of the 2 day program. She

explained the pitfalls of networking, the need for

networking and the etiquettes of networking. The entire

session was interactive and laced with humour

2. There was a Q-and-A between Craig Killough and Mark

Langley (from PMI headquarters) on one side and the

audience on the other side. The audience thus had an

opportunity to ask directly some pertinent questions and

clarifications on PMI policies and practices. The present

fees for exam, many felt, were on the higher side (they

disagreed). Some felt that there should be scrutiny on

REPs (they said yes, but then the curriculum of the

Chapters themselves should also be held for scrutiny),

and one question was asked about the need for more

chapters in India (they were reluctant about the

proposal).

3. There was a group activity were all delegates were

grouped on the basis of their roles in the individual

chapters. Each group then made a presentation on the 3

best practices that they were doing now and some key

areas of concerns. The last task was to identify on

particular suggestion that can be put to the Region –11

task force; for them to adopt in the next revamp expected

in 2013. Mr. Tejas Sura conducted the proceedings and

noted the findings.

4. The revamped website of PMI Chennai chapter was

unveiled by Mark Langley.

5. The LIM ended with a photo session with Mark Langley,

followed by Lunch. After the formal end the delegates

then proceeded for the conclave.

Postscript

Where is the next LIM in Asia Pacific? The 2013 Asia Pacific

LIM will take place from 12-13 July 2013 in Singapore. This

will be followed by the Region 11 Presidents’ Meeting on 14

July 2013. Make a note of that in your calendar!

Jacob Zachariah - PMI Mumbai Chapter

Many people have misunderstood the term stakeholders as the

customer or the sponsor of the project. Stakeholder in projects is a

much broader term which is used for any group or individual who

is impacted by or who could impact project, such as project team,

senior managers, functional managers, client team, sponsor,

project manager, regulatory bodies and media.

I believe that the most important aspect of a project is stakeholder

management. Engaging the right people in the right way can make

a huge impact on project success. Effective management of

stakeholders can help project delivery to be within time, cost, scope

and as per customer satisfaction. Whether a project runs smoothly

or with lot of issues; timely and consistent stakeholder

management can prevent lot of ill-will in the project environment.

The first step in stakeholder management is to identify all the

stakeholders and prepare a stakeholder register with their name,

contact details, position and organization. Identify who are the key

stakeholders amongst this list. The next step is to perform an

analysis of the key stakeholders. Not all stakeholders are

important. Identify the ones who have power and can influence the

project. What is their level of support for the project? There will be

some who can directly have a negative or positive influence on a

project. These are important stakeholders and need to be managed

well. On the other hand there will be some stakeholders who only

need to be informed about project’s progress.

Stakeholder analysis can be done through correct questioning

techniques.

1) Closed Questions – These require a specific answer; useful for

obtaining a numerical or definitive answer. E.g. ‘How many users

are expected to be affected post implementation of this new

process? ‘, ‘By what date are you expecting the delivery of the 1st

Module?’

2) Open Questions – These cannot be answered by a simple yes/no

response. They normally open other areas of discussion. E.g. “Tell

me about the business benefits you are expecting from the project?”

3) Probing Questions – These questions will dig or drill down

several levels to check on the quality and veracity of the facts or will

provide additional information to supplement facts. E.g. “ How

will this change impact your other project?”

Avoid:

Leading question – “Don’t you agree…” the client may agree even

if you are wrong

Critical leading questions – “ I don’t think that’s what you mean…”

this implies that client does not know what he is talking

Marathon Questions – Keep the questions short and simple

Multiple Questions – One cannot remember too many questions

and will answer only last one in the series.

Ambiguous Questions – These don’t have any relevance to the

project. Eg. “ What do you think about the impact of dollar value?”

Engaging Stakeholders for Project Success

Stakeholder Analysis Grid

Keep Satisfied Manage Closely

Monitor (Minimum effort) Keep Informed

Level of Support/Interest

Stakeholder's position on the grid shows you the actions you have

to take with them:

• High power and High interested people: These are the people

you must fully engage and make the greatest efforts to satisfy

them.

• High power and Less interested people: Keep them satisfied, but

not so much that they become bored with your message.

• Low power and High interested people: Keep these people

adequately informed, and talk to them to ensure that no major

issues are arising. These people can often be very helpful for

your project.

• Low power and Less interested people: Monitor these people,

but do not bore them with excessive communication.

Examples of how you can benefit from Stakeholders.

1) Opinions of powerful customer can be incorporated to get their

support

2) Functional Managers having high power can help you get better

resources on your project which makes it more likely for your

project to succeed.

Stakeholder management not only involves sending

status/progress reports to stakeholders and having weekly calls

with them. It involves getting their support wherever required,

making use of their power/influence to get approvals, push teams

and get things moving, get the project its due importance in

organization and to motivate teams to work on the project.

Stakeholder management is not a one-time activity, but is an

ongoing process. It not only helps project delivery, but through

efficient stakeholder management, one can build trust and

relationship with customers, vendors and internal teams which

will help your organization get future business and thus more

projects.

About the Author

Ashvini Jain

PMP, MBA, B.E.

Working with IBM India Pvt Ltd as Project Manager.

Like doing yoga, play badminton and interacting with people from

different fields and interests.


7

PMI Mumbai Chapter celebrated International Project Management Day on 1st November 2012

and on this eve the members got together over 2 conference calls. The topic of discussion was “Stakeholder Management”.

Following are the snippets in the two calls:

Snippets

Moderated but free-wheeling discussions unfolded questions such as (1) How do we see our family members as stake

holders?, (2) Why do we say "YES" when we have a deeper "NO" in our heart ? (3) How do we manage risks in our life

as a project and (4) What are the major constraints of Mumbaikars?. Obviously, all of these could not be delved in

detail in the short time available. However following are some of the insights from the teleconference.

At the outset, all of us had an agreement that the above questions have direct relationship with project triangle. We

learnt, we as Indians culturally respond in the affirmative in any situation. This could reflect as a “CAN DO” attitude,

which is a positive sign. The flip side of this could be its impact. With over-commitments one might have to stretch

oneself, as a result of which either a family member or a business associate could be put to discomfort. Therefore, we

as project managers should weigh the pros & cons prior to saying “YES” to a situation. In the current regime of ‘multi-

tasking’ one may be mocked at for being negative. So what? We need a bit of a mockery or call it a joke…we should

remind ourselves “NO” is also a part of one’s experience in life.

Many of us make our own financial decisions – be it investment in a home or financial instruments such as stock

market. Having learnt the principle of risk management - ‘Higher the risk higher the reward”, we use this knowledge

while making decisions. Generally, the risk depends on one’s personal experience and therefore, it will be a good idea

to develop good rapport with our peers who may have better information / idea and thus could help us. Wouldn’t it

be a wonderful idea to call a friend from BFSI to speak on ‘Personal finance planning’ during a PMP Club event?

Last but not the least, a Mumbaikar does feel ‘short of time’. Indeed every one of us wants to do more with less. Call it

as “efficiency syndrome” or “Multi-tasking”. A wishful thinking is to clone ourselves… Will that be possible? Will

the constraint of 24 hours in a day ever change?

Take away…

May we develop our own discipline…everyone should be reminded of their parents saying “One should not bite off

more than what one can chew”. Knowing one’s limitations would make one a successful project manager. Research

reveals, multi-tasking leads to stress and also one may loose focus on his/her objectives.

We should take a leaf from the management guru Steven Covey’s book “First Things First”, where he mentions “those

who accomplish very little are probably spending a large amount of time in activities which may not align with their

goals.” In other words, we from project management fraternity should be aware of wasteful and unimportant

activities which do not align with both meaningful and organizational goals.

“PMI Mumbai Chapter celebrates International Project Management Day”

8

Prakalp - PMI Mumbai Chapter Journal

PMI Mumbai Chapter celebrated International Project Management Day on 1st November 2012

and on this eve the members got together over 2 conference calls. The topic of discussion was “Stakeholder Management”.

Following are the snippets in the two calls:

“PMI Mumbai Chapter celebrates International Project Management Day”

Volume 14 - Issue 4: October 2012

Snippets

It was auspicious day of International Project Management day when some like minded people got on a call to discuss

stakeholder management. Stakeholder management is extremely important to any project. One by one, all

participated in this interesting and important discussion.

Stakeholder management is critical to the success of every project in every organization. By engaging the right people

in the right way in a project, one can make a big difference to its success

Discussion started with how to manage stakeholders in a project and drive project to closure considering parameters

like cost, scope, time, quality etc. One by one each of us gave our opinion. There were discussions how Peddar road

flyover project at Mumbai came to halt and project had to abandon because influential stakeholder who is also a

legendary singer was not identified as stakeholder in the beginning of the project. This topic initiated further

discussions and there were comments from all.

There were comments from one member “Stakeholder management is important because it helps an organization to

achieve its strategic objectives by involving both the external and internal environments and by creating a positive

relationship with stakeholders through good management of their expectations”

We also discussed how each of the members have faced issues from stakeholders in their projects and what mitigation

strategies they applied to ensure project success.

Take away…

It was good to see people taking time out to attend this call and celebrate International Project Management Day.

In conclusion, in order to achieve outcome from the projects, good stakeholder management practices are required.

Stakeholder management is the effective management of all participants in a project, be it external or internal.

Arguably the most important element in stakeholder management is communication where a manager has to spend

approx 90% time in doing meetings, checking and replying emails and updating and distributing reports etc.

Dear Reader – We look forward to welcome you in the biggest event of the year

PM Conclave 2012.

For those who have not still registered, please do so at www.pmconclave.in

9

access to all the preceding system tasks in the navigation

path. The project manager identified this system

dependency and it was understood that without that the

system would not perform the required tasks.

Unfortunately the project manager erred while

identifying system dependency. Technically it was not

true and without any technical background he was

unable to envisage the technical risk involved in the

system architecture. This was apprehended only when

an employee counterfeited and passed fake entries

manually. System could not identify and check the fake

entries as the task was processed by the user manually. 7

million US $ were misappropriated until the CFO

detected this fraud.

The system failure can be directly attributed to the

project manager’s failure to handle technical stuff of the

project. This once again led to a debate on technical

competency of a project manager to deliver a project

efficiently. Someone can have a different argument: a

project manager can always invite SME to provide

knowledge on technical aspect so he can easily

concentrate on his PM function like managing

stakeholders, communication risk mitigation planning

etc. But how can a project manager ask relevant

questions to SME if he does not know what to ask and

what is the implication and repercussion of the risk

identified? Communication is to understand the

message and convey it to others, not only a conduit for

information. Definitely a better solution rather than

harnessing an additional horse to the car can be there to

make the car speedier.

About the Author

I am Rajesh Bhatt PMP.

I have been working as an SAP

Consultant with Reliance, Mumbai for

more than 7 yrs. I have a total 23+ yrs.

domain experience.

[email protected]

Is a project manager a subject matter expert also? Does a

PM outweigh an SME? Can a project manager who has

managed a family vacation tour successfully run an

expedition project also smoothly? There may be

different opinion.... here is a real world scenario.

Case # 1

Implementation of Accounting System in a retail

industry.

The project manager was experienced in the marketing

sector. He had successfully completed handful projects

of launching new products in the market. His success

ratio as a project manager entrusted him with a project

to implement a centralized, computer based accounting

system in an overseas retail chain store, though he had

no previous experience of managing IT projects. This

was his first IT project. The PM was able to deliver the

product as per the schedule and within budget. He also

managed the stakeholders easily, all were happy with

the project and the project manager. Among other

things, the client’s non-functional (technical)

requirements included – system should be time-saving,

fully automated, and with a very restricted access to the

employees to the system based on their roles. The

client’s organisation had a limited skilled and semi-

skilled manpower to operate the system.

The project manager selected system architecture with

following features:

User will not use the navigation path to process system

tasks manually, instead gives a command on the screen

and the system will automatically perform the required

task in the background. Output of a previous system

task will be input for the next ensuing system task to

avoid human intervention and removing remote

possibility of human errors or embezzlement, and

accounting records will be updated in the background

automatically after every business transaction. Though

the system was to perform the required system task

automatically in the background, the user was given

PM or SME?

10


What is a Stakeholder?

In the book of Freeman (1984), STAKEHOLDER is defined as

“those groups without whose support the organization

would cease to exist”. Freeman (2004) has continued to use

this definition in a modified form: “those groups who are vital

to the survival and success of the organization”. This

definition is entirely organization orientated so the academic

circles prefer the definition of Freeman (1984) where he

defines stakeholders as “any group or individual who can

affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization

objectives”. The phrase “can affect or is affected by” seems to

include individuals of outside the firm and groups may

consider themselves to be stakeholders of an organization,

without the firm considering them to be such.

Basic idea of the Stakeholder Theory and Definition

The general idea of the Stakeholder concept is a redefinition

of the organization. The organization itself should be thought

of as grouping of stakeholders and the purpose of the

organization should be to manage their interests, needs and

viewpoints. This stakeholder management is thought to be

fulfilled by the managers of a firm. The managers should on

the one hand manage the corporation for the benefit of its

stakeholders in order to ensure their rights and the

participation in decision making and on the other hand the

management must act as the stockholder’s agent to ensure the

survival of the firm to safeguard the long term stakes of each

group.

Who are Stakeholders?

A stakeholder is any person or organization, who can be

positively or negatively impacted by, or cause an impact on

the actions of a company, government, or organization.

Types of stakeholders are:

• Primary stakeholders : are those

u l t imate ly a f fec ted , e i ther

positively or negatively by an

organization's actions.

• Secondary stakeholders : are the ‘intermediaries’, that is,

persons or organizations who are indirectly affected by an

organization's actions.

• Key stakeholders : (who can also belong to the first two

groups) have significant influence upon or importance

within an organization.

Stakeholders are defined as anyone who could or should have

an interest in what we are trying to achieve. They are

individuals, groups or organizations who stand to lose or win

as a result of our success or failure. They will have different

Stakeholder

11


characteristics depending on the project or work we are

focusing on, and they are worthy of serious consideration

because they will have the power to help or block our

progress.

Stakeholders may be external to the organization such as

customers, service users, media, politicians, pressure groups,

partners or suppliers. Other stakeholders will be internal:

staff generally, particular delivery or functional teams or

individuals, project managers, the Chief Executive, directors,

or sometimes, simply – ‘the BOSS’.

The main groups of stakeholders are Customers, Employees,

Local communities, Suppliers and distributors, Shareholders

etc. In addition to these other groups and individuals are also

considered to be stakeholders like Media, public in general,

Business partners, Future generations, Past generations

(founders of organizations), Academics, Competitors, NGOs

or activists, trade unions, Financiers, Competitors,

Government, regulators, policymakers, etc.

Of course all categories of stakeholder groups could be

defined more finely. For example media could be split up into

radio, television and print media, or employees as blue-collar

and white collar workers, or in terms for which department

they work.

Stakeholder Impact on Project Success

Effective project managers understand that to get results they

must create an atmosphere of enablement. This concept is

reinforced in research published in The Standish Group’s

famous Chaos report which revealed that the majority of

information technology projects fail, and for those that

succeed, what constitutes the top reasons for success. The

number one reason for project success is cited as user

involvement. Healthy user involvement is supported by an

emphasis on quality relationships (trust and structure),

expectation management (achievable metrics, timing), and

clear business communications (talking and writing plainly).

Other stakeholder-based contributions to project success

include executive support (visible sponsorship toward the

core values of the project); the emotional maturity of the

project manager (ability to rally stakeholders to the common

purpose); and effective use of the organization’s ecosystem

(infrastructure, procurement, facilities, legal, etc.) to support

the project.

Stakeholder Analysis

Managerial step taken to identify each stakeholder's level of

interest or involvement in a given project and how that

involvement can influence the project. Based on this analysis,


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project managers may alter how a project will be executed or

decide the necessary steps that must be taken in order to limit

a stakeholder's influence over the project.

Stakeholders can greatly influence the intended outcome and

success of a public health intervention or project. Their

involvement can take place during any stage of the project;

however, performing a stakeholder analysis during the

planning stage can greatly influence the development of an

effective project strategy. Many organizations express

support of stakeholder involvement by promising

participation, but gaining stakeholder involvement is not

always easy. Careful and thorough planning is essential to

identify the right stakeholders and to ensure stakeholders

participate in appropriate and effective ways.

Stakeholders can help make a project successful by:

• Providing valuable information regarding needs,

resources, realistic objectives, and practical considerations

for a project

• Recognizing hidden items that might not be obvious in the

planning stage

• Identifying points of opposition and prevent problems

during implementation

• Encouraging a sense of ownership in the project and

involvement during the implementation stage

• Ensuring the focus of a project remains on the people it is

meant to support/serve

Manage Stakeholders

Generally speaking there is a simple process that can be

applied to stakeholder management of any kind

• Identify stakeholders

• Categories our stakeholders

• Consider whether stakeholder is positive or negative

• Define engagement or communication scope for each

stakeholder

• Develop plan for managing each stakeholder, including

measures of success

• Deliver Plan

• Review success & refine plan

As we can see, stakeholders vary in influence, expectations,

and interests and all have the potential to impact the project.

The project manager’s goal is to leverage stakeholder

relationships and build coalitions that foster project success.

Warning signs that stakeholder management is suffering

include missed deadlines, scope creep, confusion, conflict,

and churning. Often this is indicative of competing priorities,

a lack of focus, or a lack of commitment.

The goal of a successful communications approach is to

manage expectations and minimize surprises. As much as

possible, we are trying to manage the information that people

get, their perceptions, and clarify the kind of feedback that we

need in order to be effective in delivering the project. A

communications planning matrix takes the stakeholder

analysis and identifies each stakeholder or stakeholder

group, the role they play on the project, what must be

communicated, when (how often), how (format of

communication) and whether a response is required. At

minimum, regular progress reports should be distributed to a

wide audience. Then there are various more intimate ways to

discuss project health, involve key players in getting

decisions made, and sharing those decisions. The project

manager’s number one responsibility in the project is to

communicate (> 90% of their time), and they must

demonstrate flexibility in how that communication is

delivered to best meet the needs of their stakeholders.

Communication is one of the key factors that help keep

stakeholders in check.

In terms of the governance structure, at minimum there is a

core team and some level of steering (one sponsor or multiple

senior managers). Regular meetings are set up, roles and

responsibilities are delineated, and it is clear how risks, scope

changes, issues or other project impacts are escalated for

decisions. The project manager is leveraging this structure to

ensure communications are shared, roadblocks are removed,

and stakeholder behaviors are monitored.

Stakeholder Mapping

Mapping stakeholders is a strategic business tool which

identifies and assesses the effect of a different individual or

group of stakeholders on a company. The goal of the analysis

is to gauge which stakeholder or group of stakeholders has

the greatest potential to affect the company and therefore

decide which stakeholders will need particular attention.

Stakeholders are categorized on a graph rating their level of


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interest against the power they possess to exercise those

interests. The stakeholders in this way are broadly divided

into four groups;

Group A : Low interest/low power - The company may

require little or no effort to be focused on this group. The

stakeholders pose no threat due to a lack of both interest and

power.

Group B : High interest/low power - This group, although

having a high interest, has little power to exercise control so

they can be maintained through the management of

information to keep them informed of company events.

Group C : Low interest/high power - This group may or may

not realize the degree of effect they have over the company

and therefore must be kept satisfied. However, because of

their low interest in events, they are unlikely to cause

significant disruption.

Group D : High interest/high power - The company must try

to satisfy this group first and foremost as they have the power

to effect the company and a high degree of likelihood that

they will use their power.

Main benefits

There are two main benefits to this tool:

• It helps categorize stakeholders and identify groups most

likely to affect and be affected by company decisions.

• It lets the company assess ways to improve its

communication based on proven interest of stakeholders.

By analyzing the different groups of stakeholder,

companies can prioritize and focus their efforts to

maximize the effectiveness of their stakeholders' interest

and power on big strategic decisions.

In closing, what does success look like from a stakeholder

point of view? Satisfied stakeholders get what they need, can

see business value in the results, and identify our project as an

overall positive experience.

About the Author

Prakash Mody, PMP, is working at Hewlett-

Packard (India) as PMO for one of the most

prestigious project- LIC-EDMS

Assignment: SBP – CENTRE FOR CHILDREN

WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Project brief: The nature of intervention with SBP is mainly the

Operations Management. The team of volunteers from Project

Management Institute Mumbai Chapter (PMIMC) will study the

organisation and develop processes for all the programs and

activities. Each process will have accompanying MIS will be either

designed based on the review of what is currently used and the

gaps that need to be filled.

Additional reports for the purpose of capturing the impact of the

programs and for reporting and monitoring purposes will be

designed as per the requirement.

Purpose: Initial discussions with PMIMC and Toolbox on how

best they could assist SBP led to a consensus among the trustees

about the need for better documentation and design of MIS to

serve multiple purposes. Documentation would help achieve

better operational efficiency as the manual would become a handy

operating guide for all the staff.

MIS would help SBP measure and present the impact of their

programs as well as present data to third parties including

potential institutional funders. MIS would held SBP have better

monitoring & evaluating tools from a functional efficiency aspect.

With this intervention, PMIMC, ToolBox and SBP hope to achieve

the target of preparing the organization for a certification that is

internationally recognized. This accreditation will be a validation

of the quality of systems & processes followed by SBP and can help

them reach out institutional funders and grant making bodies.

PMIMC will additionally recommend which certification would

be most suitable to the organization and help them in the

achievement of the same

Progress Achieved So Far…

• PMIMC put together team of volunteers who are subject matter

experts

• They reviewed process manual designed by ToolBox for

Each One Teach One (NGO).

• Met SBP decision makers twice to understand their

requirements and share their thoughts what could be

scope of this assignment.

• MIS is shared by SBP point person with PMIMC

volunteers

• The processes are currently reviewed by the team

• Finalisation of scope and the framework & timelines is on

Timeline:

• Three months are assigned for the work undertaken Oct.

to Dec. 2012.


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Managing different stakeholders for successful projects

Stakeholders are persons or organizations (e.g., customers,

sponsors, the performing organization, or the public), who

are actively involved in the project or whose interests may be

positively or negatively affected.(Source: PMBOK – Edition4)

Stakeholder Management plays a very vital role in winning

support from all those who are involved in a particular

project. In various sectors - across industries, chances of

projects’ success or failure largely depends on the support

received from its stakeholder.

Today, we are in the shoes of the Project Manager and by this

article; we attempt to address the various needs, concerns,

and expectations of the stakeholders as the project is planned

and carried out.

Why is stakeholder management an essential tool for any

successful project?

Project managers and enterprises have now found the ‘key’

for successful projects – you can term it as “Stakeholder

Management”, “Stakeholder Engagement” or “Stakeholder

Involvement” – these all lead to the ground rule of involving

stakeholder in every part of the project journey from concept

to realised value/product.

For a Project Manager, ‘Stakeholder management’ &

‘interaction-involvement with stakeholders’ is a key facet of

organisational management. It is one of official

communication included while developing a project plan.

Stakeholders play a central role in setting up priorities and

objectives of any initiatives in order to ensure relevance and

appropriateness. It is important that all stakeholders are

involved in the development of project plan and not just

direct beneficiaries of an initiative.

How to develop a ‘Stakeholder Participation Strategy’?

Alike any other area that needs strategy to begin, a project

manager should also develop a strategy to handle

stakeholder...

You see human management is the most difficult task!

While planning a strategy, it is worthwhile to discover about

the stakeholder characteristics, this will later help to attribute

roles and responsibilities, so that the implementation is

successful and that no conflicts arise between the

stakeholders.

The objective of a Stakeholder Participation Strategy should

be to interactively communicate the effects of the project goals

on stakeholder value, and to thereby convince the

stakeholders that they have invested their trust and their

stakes/resources in the right project.

Stakeholder Management

Identify stakeholder / stakeholder groups. Pick those

important individual stakeholders & determine their

expectations

Analyse the degree of importance of the stakeholders i.e.,

the degree how much somebody is concerned by an

initiative.

Assess stakeholder expectations and modelling of the

relationships between the various interest groups

Integration of the stakeholder expectations into the project

goals

Influence and power of a stakeholder can affect the success

or failure of an initiative.

Monitoring of the project performance / project goals,

analysis of variances and trends

Stakeholder Reporting and Stakeholder Feedback

Why should I care about the differences between

stakeholders?

Often, key stakeholders, of a given project, may have conflicts

or challenges in defining complete set of requirement. Which

approach should a project manager use to tackle such

situations?

Will you attempt to gather stakeholders in a single room, lock

the door, make a list of conflicting issues and not let anybody

out until they prioritize the list in some way? I hope not! Not

completely like this but yes somewhat!

Not exactly locking them in a single room; but yes making a

list of conflicting issues and getting consensus to prioritize.

Proactive conflict resolution is the central task of stakeholder

management. Conflict management states that resolution of

major issues is essential in order to win /sustain support of

stakeholders for successful project management. Resolution

of conflicts is one of the main responsibilities of the project

manager. A wide range of methods and procedures for

addressing conflict exist, including but not limited to,

negotiation, mediation, diplomacy, and creative peace

building.

In different dimensions, a project manager can use different

tools of conflict management.

What can you convey from this article?

Any project undertakes the work to deliver the elements

needed to facilitate a new or existing product. But are the

stakeholders ever part of the journey from concept to realised

value?

It is worth to further think about the reasons why

stakeholders are important and have a certain influence to

keep this recorded. This helps future planners, not to forget

important aspects of different stakeholders and to better

understand their perception. Stakeholder interests and

potential conflicts are often complex and many-sided. It can

be worthwhile to take this time to understand stakeholder

relations and importance thereby, avoiding conflicts and

implementation failures.

Organisations, as a whole and Project Managers, as

individuals, have to manage the stakeholder network and the

expectations of the stakeholders.

About the Author

Jyoti Dahiya is an accomplished Senior

Product Manager, Trainer and Writer. She

has over 10 years of experience in Project &

Product management, Strategy planning,

Processes & System Enhancement, Client

Servicing & Operations and Relationship

Management. She is PMP certified from PMI® and an active

member of PMI Mumbai Chapter.

Reach Jyoti @

Blog: www.jyotidahiya.wordpress.com

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jyotidahiya

Gmail: [email protected]

Yahoo: [email protected]

Skype: jyotid2109

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PMI Mumbai Chapter would wish to thank

all its members for the continues support.

Your support and encouragement

has helped us win the following awards

at the recently held meeting at Vancover Canada.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE - Mumbai ChapterUnit No. 642, Mainframe 1-B Wing, Royal Palm (India), Aarey Milk Colony, Goregaon (E), Mumbai - 400065Tel. +91-22-28792194 | Website: www.pmimumbaichapter.org | Email Id: [email protected]

prakalp · prakalp - pmi mumbai chapter journal volume 14 - issue 4: october 2012 dear friends, our...

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