Overview
Chapter 2 - Categorizing Stakeholders
Chapter 3 - Prioritizing Stakeholders
Initial Postings: Read and reflect on the assigned readings for the week. Then post what you thought was the most important concept(s), method(s), term(s), and/or any other thing that you felt was worthy of your understanding in each assigned textbook chapter.Your initial post should be based upon the assigned reading for the week, so the textbook should be a source listed in your reference section and cited within the body of the text. Other sources are not required but feel free to use them if they aid in your discussion.
Also, provide a graduate-level response to each of the following questions:
BridgePoint Tech, a mid-sized cloud solutions provider, recently secured a high-profile contract with the Department of Public Health to build and deploy a national health data portal called HealthConnect.
The project is designed to:
- Unify patient records across states
- Improve provider and patient access
- Ensure secure and compliant data handling
Tanya, the assigned project manager, realizes that the success of HealthConnect hinges not just on technology but on the alignment of diverse stakeholders with varying levels of power, influence, interest, and knowledge.
Stakeholder Complexity:
Tanya’s project is shaped by:
- A federal sponsor who holds project funding and authority but lacks deep technical knowledge.
- State IT directors, each advocating for different platform configurations to fit local systems.
- Internal engineers, who understand the technical complexities but are rarely in stakeholder meetings.
- A public health advocacy coalition, eager to ensure transparency and equity in patient data use.
- A senior VP, who wants an accelerated timeline to beat a competitor’s launch.
- A provider consortium, concerned about how the platform may change workflows and privacy.
Tanya faces growing friction, unclear priorities, and pressure from all sides. She knows that unless she can proactively manage stakeholder engagement, the project may stall—despite being well-funded and technically feasible.
Key Focus: Stakeholder Management Plan
Tanya now turns her attention to developing a Stakeholder Management Plan—a strategic tool designed to help her identify, prioritize, and engage stakeholders in a structured way.
Her plan must:
- Clarify communication expectations and responsibilities
- Outline escalation paths for resolving conflicts
- Ensure stakeholders with limited power but high interest (like health equity advocates) still feel heard
- Manage stakeholders with high power but limited understanding to avoid decision bottlenecks
Activity: Stakeholder Management Strategy Development
Based on the case scenario create a stakeholder management strategy for Tanya’s HealthConnect project. Your strategy should answer the following:
- What are the core elements of an effective stakeholder management plan?
- How should Tanya prioritize and engage stakeholders with different levels of power, interest, and knowledge?
- How might she mitigate risks created by stakeholders with high power but low understanding of the project?
- What tactics can ensure underrepresented but affected groups (e.g., health advocacy coalitions) are engaged meaningfully?
Discussion Questions
- From a stakeholder perspective, how does power relate to and impact interest, influence, and knowledge? How can imbalances in these areas affect a project’s success?
- What are the essential elements within a stakeholder management plan? Why is it a critical tool for navigating complex, multi-stakeholder projects like HealthConnect?
- How can a well-executed stakeholder management plan help a project manager control scope, expectations, and alignment as the project progresses?
- Should stakeholders with low formal power but high practical knowledge or interest (e.g., front-line providers or IT engineers) be given more influence in decision-making? Why or why not?
[Your post must be substantive and demonstrate insight gained from the course material. Postings must be in the student's own words - do not provide quotes!]
[Your initial post should be at least 450+ words and in APA format (including Times New Roman with font size 12 and double spaced). Post the actual body of your paper in the discussion thread then attach a Word version of the paper for APA review]
Chapter 2 - Categorizing Stakeholders
Overview:
We discuss several categories the project manager can use to analyze stakeholders: power, impact, influence, and interest. These terms are defined in the PMBOK Guide and provide a common language project managers can use to discuss stakeholders. Common project management language is important as individuals and organizations seek to create common terms to explain concepts. Common language is also a goal of organizations seeking to improve their levels of project management maturity. We discuss a tool used to categorize stakeholders, the stakeholder’s engagement assessment matrix. The stakeholder’s engagement matrix is a simple form that shows the current attitude of each stakeholder and the desired attitude of each stakeholder across five different categories: unsure, resistant, neutral, supportive, and leading. We use this tool as an input into other project management documents, including the stakeholder register. We also discuss the stakeholder management plan. The stakeholder management plan is a common document that pulls together different aspects of project management stakeholders. Project managers should customize the stakeholder management plan to their organization and to their specific project.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the categories used to analyze stakeholders
- Understand the need for and use of the stakeholder’s engagement assessment matrix
- Able to articulate the importance of a stakeholder management plan
- Define the elements within a stakeholder management plan
Chapter 3 - Prioritizing Stakeholders
Overview:
Project managers must strategically deploy their time and energy when working with stakeholders. Time may be the project manager’s scarcest resource. Time must be used wisely when managing stakeholders. We develop a tangible set of frameworks the project manager should use to determine how much time to allocate to each stakeholder. We also discuss several two-by-two matrices the project manager can use to evaluate and prioritize stakeholders. Project managers and project teams are encouraged to develop customized matrices for their specific projects.
We look at the stakeholder register, the primary document for project managers use to track and manage stakeholders. We presented a comprehensive and holistic stakeholder register that is more detailed than the one offered in the PMBOK Guide. The stakeholder register is integrated into the project management technical skills process. We discuss other project management documents that are inputs into the stakeholder register, as well as several documents downstream from the stakeholder register, such as the project management plan.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the framework a project manager uses to determine how much time to allocate to a stakeholder
- Understand what the two-by-two matrices is used for, as well has how to apply this tool
- Discuss the purpose of the stakeholder register, as well as how this tool can be applied
- Discuss the relationship between power to interests, influence, and knowledge
Supplementary Readings:
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/engaging-stakeholders-project-success-11199
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/stakeholder-management-task-project-success-7736
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/stakeholder-management-strategies-applying-risk-management-7479
https://www.projectmanagement.com/wikis/368897/stakeholder-analysis--using-the-power-interest-grid
the book reference is: Roeder, T. (2013). Managing Project Stakeholders: Building a Foundation to Achieve Project Goals. Wiley Professional Development (P&T). https://reader2.yuzu.com/books/9781118504260