Chapter 7: Project Communications Management as part of Project Initiation

Aim: To understand the Processes those are part of Project Communications Management in the Project Initiation Phase. i.e., “Identify Stakeholders”

The only other process in the initiating process group is the identify stakeholders process. Although you might have a preliminary list of interested parties during the development of the project charter, the official identification of stakeholders does not occur until after the project charter is complete. You are only prepared to identify all of the parties affected by the project after reviewing a complete project charter.

Identifying stakeholders is a crucial part of any project. As a project manager, you spend much of your time in the project communicating with stakeholders. It is important that you include every necessary stakeholder to the list and no one else. The identify stakeholders process results in an effective list of stakeholders and a description of how each one is involved in your project.

The table below lists the inputs, the tools and techniques, and the output for the identify stakeholders process.

Develop Project Charter
Inputs	Tools & Techniques	Outputs
Project charter Procurement documents Enterprise environmental factors Organizational process assets	Expert Judgment Stakeholder Analysis	Stakeholder Register Stakeholder Management Strategy

The most noteworthy point for the identify stakeholders process is the stakeholder analysis. This process is far more than just writing down a list of names. In addition to creating a list of stakeholders, you also need to know how much each stakeholder is involved in the project and how much influence each stakeholder can, and will, assert on the project.

Exam Watch:
Do not underestimate the importance of the stakeholder analysis. The exam might have a question that asks you to decide on a course of action that requires knowledge of stakeholder interest and influence. That information comes directly from the identify stakeholder process.

A stakeholder who is very interested in the project and has a lot of influence is apt to demand substantial attention. A stakeholder with little interest or influence should not require as much of your time. Though all stakeholders would need to be informed of the project status and progress, some might require more details than the other. The end user may need to know when the project will be available for use. The same information will be required for your project sponsor but along with this he may ask for resource utilization, budget utilization etc. The point here is that, not all stakeholders may need the same kind of information, even though they are all part of the big family of stakeholders of the project.

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