Stakeholder analysis Who matters for your project?

Many projects do not fail because of technology. They fail because of people who were asked too late. A stakeholder analysis makes sure you know everyone who matters before they speak up on their own.

What for

Spot everyone involved and involve them the right way

When

At project start, and again whenever the environment changes

Who

Project lead, ideally together with the client or sponsor

Result

List of stakeholders with influence, interest, and how to handle each

What is a stakeholder analysis?

Stakeholders are all people and groups with an interest in the project or affected by it. Internally, that includes management, departments, the project team, or the works council. Externally, think customers, suppliers, authorities, or the public.

The analysis rates each stakeholder on two criteria:

• Influence: How strongly can this person or group push the project forward or slow it down?
• Interest: How strongly are they affected or engaged?

Together, both tell you how to deal with someone. The visual version is called the power-interest grid:

• High influence, high interest: involve closely and align regularly.
• High influence, low interest: keep satisfied with brief, targeted updates.
• Low influence, high interest: keep informed. Valuable hints often come from here.
• Low influence, low interest: monitor, and keep the effort small.

Step by step

1. Collect. Who is affected, who decides, who contributes, who could block? Better to write down too many at first.
2. Get specific. Split groups when their interests diverge. “IT” and “the data protection officer” often want different things.
3. Rate. Score influence and interest as high, medium, or low.
4. Define the approach. Decide based on the rating: involve closely, keep satisfied, keep informed, or monitor.
5. Plan actions. Who talks to whom, how often, and in what form? This becomes your communication plan.
6. Review regularly. Influence and interest change, for example after a reorganization or shortly before go-live.

Example: website relaunch

In the screenshot above, the project team has listed six stakeholders. Here is what follows:

• Municipal utility’s marketing team (influence high, interest high): involve closely, weekly check-in.
• Management (high, medium): keep satisfied with short status reports at every milestone.
• IT department (high, medium): involve early on hosting, before it becomes a bottleneck.
• Customer service (medium, high): keep informed and gather feedback on the new forms.
• Data protection officer (medium, medium): involve for the forms and the cookie notice.
• Citizens (low, high): inform them about the relaunch in good time, maybe with a small user test.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting silent stakeholders. Works council, data protection, or purchasing show up late otherwise, often with a veto.
• Collecting names only. Without a defined approach, the analysis has no effect.
• Groups that are too broad. “The customers” are rarely one uniform group.
• Getting personal. Many people read the analysis. State objectively what someone needs, not what you think of them.
• Creating it once, never updating it. A change in management can shift the whole picture.

Stakeholder analysis in Tasktopus AI

Frequently asked questions

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