Stakeholder Management

Stakeholders are people, groups, or organizations that are involved in a project, are affected by its results, or can influence the course of the project.

A stakeholder analysis helps to identify relevant stakeholders at an early stage, assess their influence and attitude towards the project, and define appropriate measures for collaboration and communication.

Prepare the stakeholder analysis

At the beginning of the stakeholder analysis, the relevant internal and external stakeholders for the project are identified. Information about their influence, their attitude towards the project, and the required level of support can then be collected and assessed.

Based on this assessment, appropriate measures for collaboration and communication can be planned. As influence and attitude may change during the course of the project, the assessment should be reviewed regularly and adjusted if necessary.

Record stakeholders in the project

In smenso, stakeholders can be recorded as individual tasks within a common folder, for example Stakeholderanalyse. The Stakeholder label can be used to additionally identify and specifically filter the corresponding tasks.

For the assessment, the following Flavors can be used, for example:

• Stakeholder: Macht – to assess the stakeholder's influence on the project, for example 1 Gering, 2 Mittel, or 3 Hoch.
• Stakeholder: Unterstützung – to assess the stakeholder's attitude towards the project, ranging from negative to positive support.
• Stakeholder: Kategorie – for example, to distinguish between internal and external stakeholders.

Additional information about each stakeholder can be recorded in the description. The planned effort required to manage the stakeholder can be recorded using Plan effort.

Specific measures for collaboration with the stakeholder can be created as subtasks. These may include regular coordination, obtaining feedback, or providing targeted information about project progress.

Compare stakeholders in the List view

In the List view, recorded stakeholders can be displayed together and compared. Relevant fields such as Plan effort, Category, Power, and Support can be displayed as columns.

Filters can be used to focus on specific stakeholders or particular values when needed.

Evaluate stakeholders in the project analysis

For a visual evaluation, a Bubble Chart can be used in the project analysis. For example, Stakeholder: Macht can be displayed on the X-axis and Stakeholder: Unterstützung on the Y-axis.

Plan effort can be used as the bubble size. This makes the stakeholders' influence, support, and planned management effort visible together.

Best Practice

A stakeholder analysis should not only be created at the beginning of a project, but should also be reviewed regularly throughout the project.

• Identify relevant internal and external stakeholders as early as possible.
• Assess power and support according to consistent criteria.
• Record important information and planned measures directly with each stakeholder.
• Plan the required management effort and take it into account in project planning.
• Regularly review whether a stakeholder's influence, attitude, or required level of support has changed.
• Use the List view and project analysis to compare stakeholders and identify critical constellations at an early stage.