6.1 INTRODUCTION

One of the major concerns coming forth in the management of projects is the recognition and management of project stakeholders. These stakeholders are project team members, higher-level managers, and outside organizational entities such as contractors, subcontractors, customers, regulators, financial institutions, and other claimants who have or believe they have vested rights in the project. Acceptance of the notion of project stakeholders means that the project has to be managed from an overall perspective of all of the stakeholders not just the customer(s) and the organization.

This chapter provides a description of generic stakeholders, along with examples of successful and not-so-successful stakeholder management. A model and a process will be suggested that can be used in identifying and understanding project stakeholders, the management of such stakeholders, and how to understand and deal with the likely parochial interests of stakeholders. How to predict stakeholder behavior and how to manage the project from a total stakeholder context will be examined. After reading this chapter the people who are associated with enterprise projects or are engaged in learning how to manage projects should gain important concepts and processes to be added to their overall philosophy of project management.

6.2 WHY MANAGE STAKEHOLDERS?

Stakeholder management is also an important part of the strategic management of organizations. There is abundant literature...