Stakeholder Background and Rationale Assignment

Stakeholder
Background and Rationale
As Ackermann et al 1 A stakeholder is an individual, a group of individuals or even an organization that has a vested
interest in the way a project will turn out to be. It is important to note that project stakeholders can either be directly
involved in the project or can have interests in the project that may be affected by the outcome of the project. Project
Stakeholders may include but are not limited to; the project team members, project users, project customers, project
sponsors, the project management team as well as the project 1executives.
Importance of Project Stakeholders
 They are either the full project sponsors or make occasional contributions in the course of the project,
therefore they act as the project sponsors or main contributors as per Beringer et al 4.
 The project manager has the task of identifying the project stakeholders’ main interest in the project and
ensures that those interests are met as the project goes on. It is worth noting that project stakeholders have
the capacity of derailing the project either passively or actively.
 Managing project stakeholders is essential for the eventual success or failure of the project.
Stakeholder Register
As per Cots et al 5 A stakeholder register can be defined as that document that bests describes who is affected by the
project that is either individually or in a group, their effect and impact that they can have on the project. It can also
be defined as the project document that contains all the information required regarding the project stakeholders. It is
crucial for the project manager to complete the project stakeholder register early so as to ensure that the project
stakeholders are properly engaged in the course of the project as per Lock 92.
1 Ackermann, Fran, and Colin Eden. "Strategic management of stakeholders: Theory and practice." Long range
planning 44, no. 3 (2011): 179-196.
2 Lock, Mr Dennis. The essentials of project management. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2014.

Benefits of a Stakeholder Register
 Stakeholder register is critical in managing large projects as well as projects that move with a very fast
pace.
 Having the project stakeholder in one place can help the project management team on how to best either
engage or influence the project stakeholders in the course of the project.
As per Nataliia et al 103 stakeholder Register sources may include:-
 The sponsors of the project.
 Project management team.
 The project charter.
 The project business case.
 The contract document.
According to Roeder 114 the information contained in a project stakeholder register may include:-
 The names
 The Titles
 The roles
 The interests
 The power
 The expectations
 The type of influence
310 Nataliia, Dotsenko, Chumachenko Dmytro, and Chumachenko Igor. "Modeling of the processes of stakeholder
involvement in command management in a multi-project environment." In2018 IEEE 13th International Scientific
and Technical Conference on Computer Sciences and Information Technologies (CSIT), vol. 1, pp. 29-32. IEEE,
2018.
411 Roeder, Tres. Managing project stakeholders: building a foundation to achieve project goals. John Wiley &
Sons, 2013.

Contents of a Project Stakeholder Register
The contents of a stakeholder register falls into three categories and these are;
 Identifying the stakeholders
 Assessing the stakeholders
 Classifying the stakeholders
Stakeholder Identification
Assudani et al 5 mentioned that this particular segment is crucial as the project has many stakeholders and you may
not need to communicate with all of them. Therefore having the necessary information in case you want to
communicate with any particular one is crucial. The information contained in this segment includes: the name, the
title, contact details and information and the role or tasks played in the project.
Stakeholder Assessment
By assessing the project stakeholders, critical information such as the stakeholder expectations, requirements,
communication needs and the influence on the project will be derived. This will enable the project manager to
complete the project without any hick ups.
Stakeholder Classification
In this segment the various project stakeholders are classified based on some predetermined criteria such as
influence on the project. Stakeholders who are more powerful and have a high interest on the project should be
separated from stakeholders with less power.
Stakeholder Register Format
5 Assudani, Rashmi, and Timothy J. Kloppenborg. "Managing stakeholders for project management success: an
emergent model of stakeholders." Journal of general management 35, no. 3 (2010): 67-80.