ISO 21502:2020 Clause 7.12 Stakeholder engagement

Project Management 8 Minutes

7.12.1 Overview

The purpose of stakeholder engagement is to enable the needs, interests and concerns of stakeholders to be identified, understood and addressed sufficiently to enable the objectives to be met.
Project stakeholders should be identified, analysed, documented and engaged throughout the project.
Stakeholder engagement should include the activities of identifying and characterizing the project’s stakeholders. Planned engagement activities should be carried out to identify and address stakeholder’s concerns and to employ stakeholder support and communication.

Stakeholder engagement in project management refers to the process of identifying, communicating with, and involving individuals, groups, or organizations who have an interest or stake in the project. Effective stakeholder engagement is crucial for project success as it helps ensure that stakeholders’ interests, concerns, and expectations are understood and addressed throughout the project lifecycle. Key aspects of stakeholder engagement include:

  1. Identification of Stakeholders: This involves identifying all individuals, groups, or organizations that may be affected by or have an impact on the project. Stakeholders can include project sponsors, customers, end users, team members, regulatory bodies, suppliers, community members, and other relevant parties.
  2. Analysis of Stakeholder Needs and Expectations: Once stakeholders are identified, it’s essential to analyze their needs, interests, expectations, and potential influence on the project. This analysis helps prioritize stakeholders and determine appropriate engagement strategies.
  3. Communication Planning: Developing a communication plan tailored to the needs of various stakeholders is crucial for effective engagement. The plan should outline how and when project information will be communicated, what channels will be used, and who will be responsible for communication activities.
  4. Engagement Strategies: Project managers should employ suitable strategies to engage stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle. This may include regular meetings, workshops, stakeholder forums, surveys, interviews, focus groups, or other interactive methods to gather feedback, address concerns, and foster collaboration.
  5. Managing Stakeholder Relationships: Building and maintaining positive relationships with stakeholders is essential for project success. Project managers should establish trust, demonstrate transparency, and actively listen to stakeholders’ perspectives. Addressing their concerns and keeping them informed can help mitigate risks and ensure stakeholder buy-in.
  6. Conflict Resolution: Conflicts among stakeholders may arise due to competing interests, priorities, or goals. Effective stakeholder engagement involves identifying and addressing conflicts promptly through open communication, negotiation, and mediation to reach mutually acceptable resolutions.
  7. Monitoring and Feedback: Continuous monitoring of stakeholder engagement activities and soliciting feedback are essential to assess the effectiveness of engagement strategies and make adjustments as needed. Regularly updating stakeholders on project progress, changes, and outcomes helps maintain their engagement and support.

Overall, stakeholder engagement is a dynamic and ongoing process that requires proactive communication, collaboration, and responsiveness to ensure that project objectives are aligned with stakeholder expectations and interests. By actively engaging stakeholders, project managers can enhance project outcomes, minimize risks, and build stronger partnerships for future endeavours.

The purpose of stakeholder engagement is to enable the needs, interests and concerns of stakeholders to be identified, understood and addressed sufficiently to enable the objectives to be met.

Stakeholder engagement is a fundamental aspect of project management aimed at understanding and addressing the needs, interests, and concerns of stakeholders to ensure project success. Here’s how stakeholder engagement serves this purpose:

  1. Identification of Stakeholders: The first step in stakeholder engagement is identifying all relevant stakeholders who are impacted by or have an interest in the project. This includes internal and external stakeholders such as project sponsors, team members, customers, end-users, regulatory bodies, and community groups.
  2. Understanding Stakeholder Needs: Once stakeholders are identified, the project team works to understand their needs, expectations, and requirements related to the project. This involves gathering feedback, conducting interviews, surveys, or focus groups, and actively listening to stakeholders to gain insights into their perspectives.
  3. Addressing Stakeholder Concerns: Stakeholder engagement aims to address any concerns or issues raised by stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle. By proactively addressing concerns and responding to feedback, project teams can build trust, credibility, and goodwill with stakeholders, leading to greater support for the project.
  4. Managing Expectations: Effective stakeholder engagement helps manage stakeholder expectations by providing clear and transparent communication about project objectives, scope, timelines, and deliverables. Setting realistic expectations and managing changes effectively can prevent misunderstandings and conflicts during project execution.
  5. Alignment with Objectives: Stakeholder engagement ensures that project objectives align with the needs and priorities of key stakeholders. By involving stakeholders in the project planning process and soliciting their input, project teams can better tailor project outcomes to meet stakeholder expectations and maximize stakeholder satisfaction.
  6. Mitigating Risks: Engaging with stakeholders allows project teams to identify potential risks and opportunities early in the project lifecycle. By understanding stakeholder concerns and perspectives, project teams can anticipate challenges, mitigate risks, and capitalize on opportunities to enhance project outcomes.
  7. Building Relationships: Stakeholder engagement is also about building positive relationships and partnerships with stakeholders based on trust, transparency, and mutual respect. By fostering open communication and collaboration, project teams can strengthen stakeholder relationships and create a supportive project environment.
  8. Promoting Stakeholder Involvement: Engaging stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle encourages active participation and involvement in project activities. Stakeholders who feel valued and included are more likely to provide meaningful input, support project initiatives, and contribute to project success.
  9. Eliciting Feedback and Improvement: Stakeholder engagement provides opportunities for stakeholders to provide feedback on project progress, outcomes, and performance. This feedback can be used to identify areas for improvement, refine project strategies, and enhance project delivery processes for future projects.

Overall, stakeholder engagement is essential for ensuring that project objectives are aligned with stakeholder needs and expectations, mitigating risks, building relationships, and ultimately, achieving project success. By actively involving stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle, project teams can maximize stakeholder satisfaction, minimize resistance to change, and create value for all stakeholders involved.

Project stakeholders should be identified, analyzed, documented and engaged throughout the project.

Effectively managing project stakeholders involves a systematic approach that includes identification, analysis, documentation, and ongoing engagement throughout the project lifecycle. Here’s how each of these steps contributes to successful stakeholder management:

  1. Identification: The first step is to identify all stakeholders who have an interest in or may be impacted by the project. This includes individuals, groups, organizations, or entities both internal and external to the project. Stakeholders may include project sponsors, team members, customers, end-users, regulatory agencies, suppliers, community groups, and other relevant parties.
  2. Analysis: Once stakeholders are identified, it’s crucial to analyze their level of influence, interest, expectations, and potential impact on the project. Stakeholder analysis helps prioritize stakeholders based on their significance to the project and their ability to affect project outcomes. This analysis often involves creating stakeholder matrices or maps to categorize stakeholders based on their power and interest in the project.
  3. Documentation: Documenting stakeholder information is essential for keeping track of stakeholder attributes, preferences, communication preferences, and engagement strategies. Stakeholder documentation may include stakeholder registers, profiles, or databases that capture key information such as contact details, roles, responsibilities, and stakeholder requirements.
  4. Engagement: Effective stakeholder engagement involves developing and implementing strategies to engage stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle. This includes communication plans, engagement strategies, and mechanisms for soliciting feedback, input, and involvement from stakeholders. Stakeholder engagement activities may include stakeholder meetings, workshops, surveys, interviews, newsletters, project updates, and other communication channels tailored to stakeholders’ preferences.

Throughout the project, stakeholders should be kept informed about project progress, changes, and decisions that may affect them. It’s essential to maintain open, transparent communication and address stakeholder concerns and feedback promptly. Engaging stakeholders actively fosters trust, collaboration, and support for the project, leading to greater stakeholder satisfaction and project success. Regular review and update of stakeholder information and engagement strategies are necessary to adapt to changing stakeholder dynamics, project requirements, and external factors. By actively managing stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle, project teams can minimize risks, resolve conflicts, and enhance project outcomes by leveraging stakeholder support and expertise.

Stakeholder engagement should include the activities of identifying and characterizing the project’s stakeholders.

Stakeholder engagement involves a comprehensive process that includes identifying and characterizing the project’s stakeholders. Here’s how these activities contribute to effective stakeholder engagement:

  1. Identifying Stakeholders: The first step in stakeholder engagement is to identify all individuals, groups, organizations, or entities that have an interest in or may be affected by the project. This includes both internal and external stakeholders such as project sponsors, team members, customers, end-users, regulatory agencies, suppliers, and community groups. Stakeholder identification ensures that no relevant parties are overlooked and that their perspectives are considered throughout the project lifecycle.
  2. Characterizing Stakeholders: Once stakeholders are identified, it’s essential to characterize them based on attributes such as their roles, responsibilities, interests, influence, expectations, and potential impact on the project. Stakeholder characterization helps project teams understand the diverse needs, preferences, and concerns of different stakeholder groups. This information guides the development of tailored engagement strategies and communication plans that address the unique requirements of each stakeholder group.

By identifying and characterizing stakeholders early in the project lifecycle, project teams can effectively engage with stakeholders and build positive relationships based on mutual understanding, trust, and collaboration. This proactive approach helps ensure that stakeholder needs are identified, addressed, and integrated into project planning and decision-making processes, leading to greater stakeholder satisfaction and project success.

Planned engagement activities should be carried out to identify and address stakeholder’s concerns and to employ stakeholder support and communication.

Planned engagement activities are crucial for effectively identifying and addressing stakeholder concerns, as well as leveraging stakeholder support and communication. Here’s how these activities contribute to successful stakeholder engagement:

  1. Identifying Stakeholder Concerns: Planned engagement activities, such as stakeholder interviews, surveys, focus groups, or workshops, provide opportunities to gather feedback and insights from stakeholders. By actively listening to stakeholders and soliciting their input, project teams can identify key concerns, priorities, and areas of interest related to the project.
  2. Addressing Stakeholder Concerns: Once stakeholder concerns are identified, project teams can develop strategies to address them effectively. This may involve implementing corrective actions, making adjustments to project plans, or providing additional information or resources to address stakeholder needs. Timely and transparent communication is essential for addressing concerns and building trust with stakeholders.
  3. Employing Stakeholder Support: Planned engagement activities also enable project teams to leverage stakeholder support for the project. By involving stakeholders in decision-making processes, seeking their buy-in, and actively engaging them as advocates for the project, project teams can mobilize support from influential stakeholders. This support can help overcome resistance to change, secure necessary resources, and drive project success.
  4. Communication: Effective communication is a cornerstone of stakeholder engagement. Planned communication activities should be tailored to the needs, preferences, and expectations of different stakeholder groups. This may include regular project updates, progress reports, stakeholder meetings, newsletters, or dedicated communication channels. Clear, concise, and timely communication helps keep stakeholders informed, engaged, and invested in the project.
  5. Feedback Mechanisms: Planned engagement activities should include mechanisms for soliciting feedback from stakeholders on project progress, decisions, and outcomes. This feedback loop allows project teams to assess stakeholder satisfaction, identify areas for improvement, and make adjustments to engagement strategies as needed. By actively seeking and responding to stakeholder feedback, project teams demonstrate their commitment to stakeholder engagement and continuous improvement.

Overall, planned engagement activities are essential for fostering productive relationships with stakeholders, addressing their concerns, and leveraging their support to drive project success. By actively engaging stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle, project teams can build trust, alignment, and collaboration, leading to better outcomes and greater stakeholder satisfaction.

Published by Pretesh Biswas

Pretesh Biswas has wealth of qualifications and experience in providing results-oriented solutions for your system development, training or auditing needs. He has helped dozens of organizations in implementing effective management systems to a number of standards. He provide a unique blend of specialized knowledge, experience, tools and interactive skills to help you develop systems that not only get certified, but also contribute to the bottom line. He has taught literally hundreds of students over the past 5 years. He has experience in training at hundreds of organizations in several industry sectors. His training is unique in that which can be customized as to your management system and activities and deliver them at your facility. This greatly accelerates the learning curve and application of the knowledge acquired. He is now ex-Certification body lead auditor now working as consultancy auditor. He has performed hundreds of audits in several industry sectors. As consultancy auditor, he not just report findings, but provide value-added service in recommending appropriate solutions. Experience Consultancy: He has helped over 100 clients in a wide variety of industries achieve ISO 9001,14001,27001,20000, OHSAS 18001 and TS 16949 certification. Industries include automotive, metal stamping and screw machine, fabrication, machining, assembly, Forging electrostatic and chrome plating, heat-treating, coatings, glass, plastic and rubber products, electrical and electronic equipment, assemblies & components, batteries, computer hardware and software, printing, placement and Security help, warehousing and distribution, repair facilities, consumer credit counseling agencies, banks, call centers, etc. Training: He has delivered public and on-site quality management training to over 1000 students. Courses include ISO/TS -RAB approved Lead Auditor, Internal Auditing, Implementation, Documentation, as well as customized ISO/TS courses, PPAP, FMEA, APQP and Control Plans. Auditing: He has conducted over 100 third party registration and surveillance audits and dozens of gap, internal and pre-assessment audits to ISO/QS/TS Standards, in the manufacturing and service sectors. Other services: He has provided business planning, restructuring, asset management, systems and process streamlining services to a variety of manufacturing and service clients such as printing, plastics, automotive, transportation and custom brokerage, warehousing and distribution, electrical and electronics, trading, equipment leasing, etc. Education & professional certification: Pretesh Biswas has held IRCA certified Lead Auditor for ISO 9001,14001 and 27001. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering and is a MBA in Systems and Marketing. Prior to becoming a business consultant 6 years ago, he has worked in several portfolios such as Marketing, operations, production, Quality and customer care. He is also certified in Six Sigma Black belt .

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