Once stakeholders are identified, the project manager and the project team should seek to understand stakeholders’ feelings, emotions, beliefs, and values. These elements can lead to additional threats or opportunities for the project outcomes. They can also change quickly, and as such, understanding and analyzing stakeholders is an ongoing action.
Related to understanding the project stakeholders is the need to analyze aspects of each stakeholder’s position on and perspective of the project. Analyzing stakeholders considers several stakeholder aspects, such as:
- Power,
- Impact,
- Attitude,
- Beliefs,
- Expectations,
- Degree of influence,
- Proximity to the project,
- Interest in the project, and
- Other aspects surrounding stakeholder interaction with the project.
This information helps the project team consider interactions that may influence the motivations, actions, and behaviors of stakeholders. In addition to individual analysis, the project team should consider how stakeholders interact with each other, as they often form alliances that help or hinder the project’s objectives. For example, if the project team believes a key business manager is highly influential but has negative perceptions related to the project, they can explore how to detect the business manager’s perceptions and respond appropriately as the project unfolds. In all cases, the analysis work should be held in confidence by the project team since the information could be misinterpreted outside the context for the analysis.
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