Stakeholder analysis

As a project manager, you have to recognize the stakeholders and their individual wishes, expectations and needs and use them for the success of the project. The difficulty lies in the fact that interests are sometimes conflicting. Project managers use stakeholder analysis to gain a clear overview.

The aim of stakeholder analysis as a project management method is to divide stakeholders (i.e. people involved in a project) into different categories based on their ability to influence (in relation to the project and other stakeholders) and their willingness to engage in conflict. The classification into these categories provides an overview of the stakeholders involved and helps to identify which stakeholders need to be managed and to what extent, and what opportunities and risks exist in each case.

The first step in the stakeholder analysis is to collect the stakeholders. The stakeholders are then categorized in a matrix, which classifies them according to their influence and potential for conflict.

1: Influence high, conflict potential high: These people need to be closely managed and their interests well analyzed. As a project manager, you must try to reduce the potential for conflict and promote a positive attitude towards the project in order to utilize their great influence on it.

2: Influence high, conflict potential low: These people have an overall positive attitude towards the project. They play a major role in the success of the project. As a project manager, you must maintain this positive attitude!

3: Influence low, conflict potential low: These stakeholders do not need to be particularly managed at first, but as a project manager you should keep an eye on the potential for conflict and not underestimate the strength of their influence on other stakeholders!

4: Influence low, conflict potential high: In contrast to the stakeholders in quadrant 3, these people have a negative attitude towards the project. It is important to keep an eye on these people and improve their attitude towards the project.

Further references:

https://projekte-leicht-gemacht.de/blog/methoden/stakeholder/stakeholder-bewerten/

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder

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