Who influences your project's success?

One of the most common causes for a project stalling, or experiencing significant variances, is a failure to identify and involve stakeholders appropriately. Research and project experience within the biomedical sector show that successful projects involve these people right from the outset. When this doesn't happen, the project team typically find themselves trying to sell the project solution to an audience who resist buying in. Often this results in revision of project objectives, scope or requirements at a late stage in execution, with consequent unplanned costs and over-runs. 

Before deciding how to involve people that can influence your project's success, you need to

identify who they are, find out their interests in the project and how it might impact them. This process typically has two phases; one of analysis, followed by engagement planning. The analysis phase is the subject of this article and has three steps (shown to the right).

Four of the benefits of this phase are;

• Identifying the main assumptions and some key risks to project success,
• Enabling early engagement of people with influence on project outcomes,
• Involving stakeholders at a very early stage in project design,Ensuring that the project design reflects the needs and requirements of key players.

Step 1 – Identify

Your stakeholders include those who initiate or drive the project, along with anyone who needs to be consulted, approve the result, provide information or are impacted (either positively or negatively) by the project. Examples include; 

An effective way of identifying who needs to be included in this group is to involve the project team in a brainstorming activity. A review of a organisation's project methodology/process and relevant organisation charts can also assist in filling any gaps in coverage.

Step 2 – Prioritise

It may already be apparent that some of the people identified have greater power than others to block, or support, progress. Some will have less interest in the project success or outcomes than others. The appropriate way to get (and keep) these people involved will vary depending upon where they sit on these two axes. It is often helpful to prioritise the focus of communication activities by plotting individuals onto a matrix, such as that shown below.

Influence: The ability to either create or resolve roadblocks to progress.

Interest: The impact of the project on an individual's activities (e.g. will they feel pain if the project fails?).

The nature and level of involvement is summarised in each quadrant of the matrix.

Step 3 – Understand

To ensure that stakeholders have the right level of involvement, their drivers and interest in the success of the project should be understood. An effective way of doing this is to talk with the stakeholders directly, as asking people's opinions is often a good means to start building a successful relationship.

Questions that you can either ask directly, or discretely answer, include;

• How does the project impact them? What are the likely benefits or problems that the project will bring them?
• What information do they want from the project?
• What is the best way to communicate with them?
• Are they likely to be asked to commit resources or time to the project?
• Do they have a positive or negative perception of the project currently?
• What would improve their current perception of the project?

It is also worth considering who in the organisation they listen to, as these people may also need to be regarded as stakeholders.

Next Steps

The team has an understanding of who will be affected by the project, how much to involve each person and their communication preferences. This information can be used to develop a plan for stakeholder engagement.

Project teams often benefit from revisiting the analysis during project design and execution, particularly when there are changes to the project environment, business organisation or participants. Review ensures that the relevant people are (or continue to be) involved and feel included in project delivery.

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Would you like to find out more?

If you would like to explore the measures described in this article, or;

• Practical application of the results of research into project variance
• Use of a diagnostic to assess your project's vulnerability, or
• An in-depth, objective assessment of a specific project, to identify vulnerabilities in four domains,

contact Matthew Theobald on +44 (0)1270 61 86 93 or via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for an initial, no obligation and confidential discussion.