Stakeholder Management

What it is

Stakeholder management is keeping the people who can fund, block or reshape the work aligned and informed. The artefact is a stakeholder map — who they are, how much power and interest they have, what they need and when — plus a communication plan that says what each of them hears and how often.

Why it matters

Projects rarely fail on the technical work and often fail on an unconsulted person with the authority to stop them. The finance lead who first hears about the change when the invoice fails, the support manager whose team absorbs the extra calls, the compliance officer whose sign-off nobody asked for. Naming them early makes the objections arrive while they are still cheap to act on, and it turns the escalation path from an ambush into a scheduled conversation.

In this track

1. The power and interest map (04-product-process/07-stakeholder-management/01-the-power-and-interest-map) — the artefact, and how to read it.
2. Keeping people aligned and informed (04-product-process/07-stakeholder-management/02-keeping-people-aligned-and-informed) — what each group is told, when and by whom.

Prerequisites

None.

Go deeper

• Business Analysis (04-product-process/06-business-analysis) — the mapping that identifies the stakeholders in the first place.
• Product Management (04-product-process/03-product-management) — the decisions these people are being kept aligned with.
• Saying no (04-product-process/03-product-management/04-saying-no) — the escalations a map helps you see coming.
• Technical Writing (04-product-process/08-technical-writing) — the documents most of this communication lands in.