Managing Project Stakeholders: Building a Foundation to Achieve Project Goals

The keys to project management success delivered by one of the world's most respected experts in the field "Lots of project management books teach how to deliver project objectives on time and within budget. But very few teach how to manage the critical stakeholder dimension. This is the best that I've seen because it provides commonsense tools and tips for turning your stakeholders into raving fans". —Terry Schmidt, PMP, SMP; founder, ManagementPro.com; author, Strategic Project Management Made Simple : Practical Tools for Leaders and Teams "Mission-driven organizations like The Centers for Families and Children depend on internal and/or external project managers who can successfully lead and manage all the stakeholders involved in creating, designing, and executing key strategic projects. As we all know firsthand, it's the people involved and impacted by the project, 'the stakeholders,' who will make or break an organization's ability to successfully implement a strategic project. Tres Roeder's book Managing Project Stakeholders provides clear, actionable techniques and tools required to effectively manage the stakeholders. It is a must-read for all of us managing multiple stakeholders in order to effectively implement a project on time and on budget." —Bernadette M. Kerrigan, Chief Talent Officer, The Centers for Families and Children Written by a globally recognized expert on project and organizational change management, Managing Project Stakeholders provides comprehensive coverage of the foundational elements of project stakeholder management. Using many real-life scenarios and case studies to present project stakeholder management strategies and best practices, Tres Roeder: Describes a holistic, balanced approach that seamlessly integrates the technical, business, and interpersonal aspects of project management Walks you through proven techniques for categorizing, prioritizing, and successfully managing all individuals involved in a project Delivers expert guidance on dealing with the full range of people management issues—from recruitment to conflict resolution, time management to leadership Provides project managers with a total blueprint for successfully managing people in projects, from conception through fulfillment The first comprehensive, expert guide to project stakeholder management, this book is must-reading for those new to project management, as well as experienced project management professionals wanting to build on and fine-tune their interpersonal management skills. This book counts as Category C PDUs toward fulfillment of the continuing education requirement for maintaining the PMP® credential.

Foreword xi Preface xv Acknowledgments xix Section One: Stakeholder Management Overview 1 Chapter One: What Is a Stakeholder? 3 Project Managers Must Be Nimble 3 The Balanced Approach 4 The Project Management Institute 7 Stakeholder Defined 11 Stakeholder Management Is Universal 16 Summary 16 Chapter Two: Categorizing Stakeholders 19 Benefits of Categorizing 20 Dimensions of Categorization 22 Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix 25 Stakeholder Management Plan 27 Summary 28 Chapter Three: Prioritizing Stakeholders 31 Power and Interest 32 Power and Influence 35 Power and Knowledge 36 Custom Matrices 38 Stakeholder Register 38 Summary 48 Section Two: Stakeholder Groups 51 Chapter Four: Project Team Members 53 Who They Are 53 Tips for Managing Project Team Stakeholders 55 The Extended Project Management Team 63 Watch–Outs 65 Summary 67 Chapter Five: Executive Stakeholders 69 Who They Are 69 Tips for Managing Executive Stakeholders 73 Watch–Outs 84 Summary 86 Chapter Six: Other Stakeholders 87 External Stakeholders 87 Stakeholders Subject to the Change 90 Phantom Stakeholders 97 Summary 101 Section Three: Stakeholder Communication and Conflict 103 Chapter Seven: Stakeholder Communication 105 Stakeholder Communication Plan 106 Stakeholder Communication Channels 106 Holistic Approach to Communication 115 Summary 115 Chapter Eight: Managing Stakeholders in a Virtual World 117 The Continuum of Robustness 118 Risks of Virtual Teams 123 Opportunities When Working Virtually 128 Summary 131 Chapter Nine: Managing Difficult Stakeholders 133 Projects Create Tough Issues 134 Categorizing Difficult Stakeholders 134 Proceeding without the Executive Sponsor 140 Positive Attitude 140 Summary 143 Section Four: General Stakeholder Management Skills 145 Chapter Ten: Leadership 147 A Sixth Sense for Project Management® 148 Project Managers Are Leaders 149 Situational Leadership Model 155 Summary 180 Chapter Eleven: Buy–In 181 The Circle of Support Process 183 Include Stakeholders 183 Observe Stakeholders 189 Respond to Stakeholders 190 Summary 200 Chapter Twelve: Negotiation 203 Negotiation Is a Two–Way Street 204 Ten Tips for Negotiations in Projects 205 Summary 223 References 225 About the Author 227 Index 229

Tres Roeder is a global expert on project and change management. He has been quoted by the New York Times , the Wall Street Journal , MSN Money, Microsoft Press, Human Resource Executive Online, Crain's Cleveland Business, and others. A former consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, Mr. Roeder founded Roeder Consulting in 2001. He has led Fortune 500 consulting engagements in areas such as corporate strategy, operations improvement, process improvement and implementation. Mr. Roeder is a PMP® with a BA in economics from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.