Subtitles of the Movie

In this movie, we will look closely at project stakeholders. A stakeholder can either be an individual or an organization. In the last movie, we mentioned that they have a vested interest in the project, but they are also actively involved in the project. They are critical because you, as a Project Manager, have an obligation to meet their expectations. And yes, there could be dozens of stakeholders within your project and you must manage them carefully because not doing so can cause the downfall of a project. I'll stop here and explain this last statement. Imagine a room full of stakeholders all with their own opinions and personal interests regarding the project requirements. Now, imagine further the idea of getting this group of people to agree on a set of requirements. That's not an easy thing to do and the requirements must be identified properly and disagreements over the requirements resolved. So let's say that somehow you missed a requirement held by a key stakeholder, perhaps because he wasn't at one of the main meetings or for some other reason, but it has now been determined that the project must include this new requirement. And we happen to be six months into a nine-month project. That doesn't seem like it would be a likely scenario, but you would be surprised at how often that type of thing occurs. The responsibility does fall on the shoulders of the Project Manager to make sure the stakeholders fully understand the decisions to be made, that they're kept well-informed and that overall their needs in regards to the project are met. This is why stakeholders must be identified early on in the project in order to ensure that the project requirements are fully specified. To help you completely understand the importance of stakeholders to a project, think of it like this; a project is successful when it meets project objectives and when it either meets or exceeds the expectations of stakeholders. So who exactly are these stakeholders? Let's clarify further. They can include the Project Manager, the sponsor, which is the person or the group that is funding the project, customers, department heads or managers, the executive team, the project team, the Project Management Office and we'll define the PMO during the next section of this course. By no means is this a complete list. Stakeholders can expand to include vendors, government agencies and others that can provide an influence within the project. In looking at this list alone, it won't surprise you to know that one of the challenges of managing stakeholder expectations is dealing with conflicting interests. Although it can seem impossible at times, managing stakeholder expectations can be done and requires planning and continuous follow up from the Project Manager. In closing, remember that project stakeholders are critical to the success of the project. It is important to identify your stakeholders as early as possible within a project in order to make sure everyone is in agreement with the project requirements. Lastly, in order for a project to end successfully, the needs of project stakeholders must either have been met or exceeded.