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Running a project requires more than simply managing the resources, technologies and risks. It requires a superior attention to stakeholder management. Your stakeholders are anyone with an interest in your project or anyone impacted by its deliverables. This could involve quite a sizeable list and you will ensure that you have everybodys interests covered. It does not mean you have to meet everybody personally but it means that every person is at least informed and aware of the project. However, you will understand the drivers and issues your stakeholders have and to keep them involved for the duration of the project.
You may believe that delivering your project on time, to budget with the appropriate dash of business requirements is the final measure of success.
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There is another important measure and it is a very basic one, too. You will make sure that all the people associated with the project know of its success, were aware of its progress throughout, were supportive of its project objectives, were committed to the deliverables and felt part of the project. Overwhelmingly, a significant number of projects fail to get this element correct.
We interview many candidate project managers for positions we require and for positions our customers require. Naturally, we will ask specific questions about project success factors and we seek the candidates comments. Frequently, we fail to receive any comments about stakeholder management. Often, the candidate will realise the importance of this factor and is able to expand on the subject, when prompted by the interviewer.
We find this is a common trait even in very experienced managers and probably attributable to the fact that many of them work in commercial relationships involving account managers. It is often the account manager who performs stakeholder management and continues to sell the ethos of the project throughout. An Account Manager needs to demonstrate the ability to retain customers and ultimately improve customer loyalty to your brand. These are both important elements in business development and in relationship management but also key essentials in the practice of successful stakeholder management.
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Basically, you want to retain your stakeholders on, or associated with, the project if they are providing a key or beneficial role. Furthermore, you want to improve loyalty to the overall objectives of the project to ensure you maintain their Commitment and dedication to providing their skills and the skills of their own personnel.
Often, a skilled project manager will have delivered many projects but had little involvement in building and maintaining wider relationships with project stakeholders. They may have little or almost no participation in the executive briefings so will have little or almost no understanding of the wider commercial drivers and objectives the project needs to satisfy.
Also, managers see little of the early stage sales and project bid processes so they will have precious little connection with those people whose responsibility is wider than that of the immediate project e.g. contract negotiators, legal team, compliance, policy and executive management. Get the relationship with these people wrong and it does not matter what you deliver. Your project will be viewed as a failure.
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 SPADE: Successful Pragmatic Agile Delivery Everytime™ |
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Agile Project Governance for Cost Conscious Companies™
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