Stakeholder Management in PM²: managing expectations, influence and buy-in
Fifteenth article in the “Learning PM² Through a Project” series
A project can meet schedule and budget and still fail: users may not adopt the solution, a decision-maker may discover a material impact too late, or a key supplier may not be involved when needed.
In PM², stakeholder management is not simply sending communications. It means understanding who can influence the project or be affected by it, what their position is, and what action is needed to obtain decisions, collaboration and adoption.
Who is a stakeholder?
A stakeholder is a person, group or organisation that can affect the project, be affected by it, or see its outcome as relevant.
Stakeholders are not the same as the Project Core Team. They may include:
- sponsors, the Project Owner, Business Manager and Solution Provider;
- end users and their representatives;
- technical teams, operational support and security;
- suppliers, partners and procurement functions;
- organisations or authorities imposing regulatory, contractual or compliance constraints.
The useful question is not “who should receive the report?” but “who can change the likelihood of project success, and who must be prepared for the change?”
The four essentials
| Step | Expected result |
|---|---|
| Identify | A considered list of stakeholders, including external and less visible ones. |
| Analyse | Interests, influence, impact, expectations, position and information needs. |
| Plan engagement | Actions and channels appropriate for involving each group. |
| Monitor and adapt | Update analysis and actions when people, priorities or context change. |
The Project Stakeholder Matrix is the PM² artefact that makes this analysis explicit. It is not an email-address list: it connects stakeholders, interests, influence and engagement approach.
Power, interest and impact: a map for deciding attention
A practical classification combines two questions:
- how much can the stakeholder influence decisions, resources or acceptance?
- how interested in, or impacted by, the project are they?
| Profile | Strategy |
|---|---|
| High influence, high interest | Manage closely: decisions, trade-offs, risks and validation. |
| High influence, low interest | Keep satisfied: concise, timely messages focused on what matters to them. |
| Low influence, high interest | Keep informed and listen: they may provide decisive evidence for adoption. |
| Low influence, low interest | Monitor without overloading them with communication. |
This is not a hierarchy of people’s value. It helps allocate limited project time deliberately.
Stakeholder Management is not Communication Management
The two topics overlap, but they differ.
| Stakeholder Management | Communication Management |
|---|---|
| Decides who to engage, why, at what level of attention and with what engagement objective. | Defines what information to distribute, when, through which channels, format and responsibilities. |
| Aims for buy-in, collaboration, decisions and adoption. | Aims for a clear, timely and traceable information flow. |
A perfect report sent to the wrong person, or without a way to discuss it, does not solve a stakeholder-management problem.
The Annotatio case: Smart Bookings
For the Smart Bookings project, an initial analysis could look like this:
| Stakeholder | Interest / impact | Influence | Useful action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gym manager | Reduce no-shows and calls; quickly see occupancy. | High | Validate priorities, acceptance criteria and benefit indicators. |
| Floor collaborators | Use the list and check-in every day; may fear slower procedures. | Medium | Trial sessions, feedback collection, simple operational material. |
| Registered clients | Want frictionless booking and cancellation. | Collective medium | Usability testing and clear communication of the new service. |
| Annotatio team | Must build, support and maintain the solution. | High | Fast decisions on requirements, defects and technical constraints. |
| Push-notification provider | Provides a dependent service for some functions. | High on part of the solution | Check SLA, limits, policy changes and contingency plan. |
Two common errors become clear:
- speaking only to the manager and discovering after go-live that collaborators bypass the new flow;
- involving users only at acceptance testing, when improving the experience is already costly.
Engagement: from resistance to participation
Not every stakeholder starts supportive. Resistance may be reasonable: perceived loss of autonomy, added workload, fear of controls, poor previous experiences or lack of time.
The useful response is not abstractly “communicate more”. It is choosing the appropriate action:
| Situation | Possible action |
|---|---|
| The stakeholder does not understand the benefit | Connect the solution to a concrete problem they experience. |
| They fear more operational work | Let them try a prototype and measure the time required. |
| They disagree with a priority | Make options, impacts and the competent decision explicit. |
| They are influential but unavailable | Ask for short, prepared decisions with a clear choice. |
| They are highly involved but have little authority | Listen: they may identify adoption risks others cannot see. |
Do not confuse these
| Statement | Correction |
|---|---|
| “Stakeholders are only the client and the team.” | They include everyone who influences or is affected by the project, even outside the team. |
| “If I send the report, I have involved them.” | Informing is not the same as obtaining feedback, decisions or buy-in. |
| “Resistant stakeholders are obstacles to bypass.” | They may reveal operational risks, real needs or overlooked impacts. |
| “The stakeholder matrix is created only once.” | Review it when the project, people, interest or influence changes. |
Three questions to anchor it
- Which stakeholder can block adoption despite having no formal role in the project?
- Who needs a decision, and who instead needs practical proof of the solution?
- Which stakeholder is missing from your current analysis because they are less visible?
Flashcards
Q: What is the Project Stakeholder Matrix for?
A: To identify and analyse stakeholders, interests, influence, impact and engagement approach.
Q: What is the difference between informing and engaging?
A: Informing distributes content; engaging seeks feedback, decisions, collaboration or adoption.
Q: Should a high-influence, low-interest stakeholder be ignored?
A: No. Keep them satisfied with selective and timely information.
Exam-style question
A project has a highly involved PO and end users who will be affected by the new process, but the users have not been consulted. The PM plans to send them a guide after release.
What is the main risk?
Answer: adoption may fail or create resistance and operational problems that were not identified. End users should be analysed and engaged before release, in ways proportionate to their impact and their knowledge of real work.
Source
Stakeholder management and the Project Stakeholder Matrix are covered in the European Commission’s PM² Methodology Guide 3.1.
Next: Requirements Management, for keeping requirements clear, traceable and verifiable through acceptance.