13.3 Manage Stakeholder Engagement

The Manage Stakeholder Engagement process is to be the social, communication, and information coordination vehicle for the project.  Understanding stakeholder needs, communications preferences and overall attitudes is vital to this process.  Conflict resolution skills are also a must.  During this process the project team must find ways to maximize positive stakeholder participation and minimize resistance.  Keeping stakeholders engaged means keeping them informed.  Meetings, email, and other forms of executive communication are often a big part of this process.  The Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs are illustrated below in figure 35.Figure 35. Manage Stakeholder Engagement: Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs. Reprinted from "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 5th Edition" by Project Management Institute, 2013, p.404. Copyright 2013 by Project Management Institute, Inc. Reprinted without permission.

Process Definition

Managing stakeholder engagement is gaining and reaffirming stakeholder commitment to a project goals.  This is done through negotiation and communications.   It is also keeping stakeholders informed of project progress and expectations and obtaining appropriate input to steer processes for which they are involve.  This process also means judiciously addressing stakeholder conflicts and concerns to resolution or acceptance. 

Process Assessment

Effective stakeholder engagement makes certain stakeholders understand project goals, objectives, challenges, benefits and risks.  This can empowers stakeholders to be actively involved and provide support when needed.  A proactive approach to stakeholder engagement is the most effective it helps to get the stake holder on board and avoid having to mitigate negative impacts. Nobody likes to find out after the fact of missed opportunities or  problems in a process they have a stake in.  

Artifacts

Input

 Communication and stakeholder engagement often go hand in hand.  We had a project in PMGT501 of building an LEED home.  Most of the stakeholders were part of the project team so it made sense to combine the stakeholder engagement and Communications plans in order to not  be redundant in the Project Management Plan.  See this product (13.3.1) below.

Tools & Techniques

In PMGT502 we had an assignment to right a blog the topic of choice was stakeholder communications and engagement methods. The artifact WBS7.3 Blog Troy Stempfley managing stakeholder engagement (13.3.2) was the file name for my Blog.  It discusses methods of communicating with stakeholders at different levels with varying  types of information and the reasons for that.  

Output

During PMGT611 our project was to develop a Information Technology (IT) upgrade for a University.  One of the main problems was the current IT office structure was not conducive to successful project management as reflected in their project success rates.  one of the first changes that need to happen was to restructure the IT department and introduce and IT project manager.  Our project included all the processes and needs but left only an example of a Change Request form.  So, I filled it out to initiate  the structure change by requesting to hire the ITPM for this Artifact (13.3.3).