In your initial project planning session you have identified your stakeholders, what you need to do next is to evaluate their importance and influence on the successful delivery of your project.
To do this I use a simple 4 quadrant matrix, which evaluates the stakeholder in simple terms, this is an activity you should do at the start of the project and then evaluate regularly as you go through the lifecycle of the your project, as you will often find new stakeholders come into play and need to be managed.
The Matrix
How to use the matrix
Look at all your stakeholders, and evaluate where they go
High-High A good example here would be your sponsor (note here if your sponsor doesn't have high interest you are in trouble.
High Interest- Low Influence Could be team members you are relying on to complete a task
Low Interest -High Influence Influencial person in the business but not close to your project, for instance finance director who holds the purse strings.
Low Interest-Low Influence Most interesting category as you could argue why are they a stakeholder if in this category, a good example here could be your IT department who you will need to find that elusive bit of kit but claim they need a 3 month lead time.
Key Uses of the Matrix
Governance
From your evaluation you can see who you would need to include in your steering meetings, regular working groups and in any weekly updates.
Communication
On a project I am currently working on, it has a long lead time and on my monthly review I noticed that I had no communication with a High Interest-High Influence stakeholder for the last month.
On evaluation they are still key to the project success, so it was a good reminder to drop them a note with a quick update and explain why they hadn't had the expected involvement just yet.
Summary
Stakeholders and their support are paramount to the successful delivery of your project, and this is a great tool to initially manage them and then continually evaluate them.
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