CHAPTER 13A
Studies in Communications Management
Achieving Project Success Through Stakeholder Management
A project is usually considered a success if all the work goes as planned. This assumes that the project has a well-developed plan and there are no surprises. In a successful project, objectives are well defined, work is accomplished as scheduled, and resources are used efficiently. Furthermore, the client is pleased with the final results. Most important, the whole job is done without mishap, controversy, or lawsuit. In addition, management acknowledges a fine job and rewards everyone handsomely.
Projects seldom work out this way. One reason is that project objectives have different meanings for different people. Work tasks run into roadblocks, get delayed, and consume resources. Critics attack the project, unexpected problems develop, and people get discouraged and quit. Project success means handling all the unexpected problems and getting the job done to project stakeholders’ satisfaction. Project teams increasingly address a complex mix of issues, problems, and aspirations. These include not only the goals and ambitions of project participants, but also of outside parties. To be successful, project teams must understand who determines success, what their motivations are, and what costs are involved.
WHO DETERMINES PROJECT SUCCESS?
In every undertaking there are parties with a vested interest in the activities and results of the project. The motivations of the project sponsors and those who do the work are obvious. Individuals affected by the project are concerned. Still, others are motivated by political, social, environmental, and economic interests. These parties are called stakeholders: individuals with some kind of stake, claim, share, or interest in the activities and results of the project.
The role of the stakeholders and the influence they have is not always understood by project managers. This can be a serious problem for several reasons. First, the project manager has to build a project team that has the skill to address all stakeholder requirements and concerns. Second, the team must develop strategies for dealing with different levels of stakeholder power. Finally, resources must be obtained to deal with stakeholder issues that are beyond normal project demands. Project managers must study the different stakeholders to understand how they can influence project success.
Project stakeholders can be categorized into four main groups, as shown in Table 13A-1. These include: (1) project champions, (2) project participants, (3) community participants, and (4) parasitic participants. The potential role and influence of each group is discussed in the sections that follow.
Project Champions
Project champions are those who have some reason to bring a project into being. These stakeholders include the developers, investors, and entrepreneurs motivated by profit. The group also includes the visionaries who are trying to create something for the future or for the benefit of others. Also included is the client or customer with a specific need, politicians, community leaders, and others who want to satisfy the needs of their constituents. The role of the project champion is significant; in most cases the project cannot exist without them. Furthermore, the judgments, evaluations, and perceptions of these stakeholders probably have the greatest effect in confirming project success. The project champions must be fully satisfied, or the project is not a success. Obviously, the composition of the project champions as well as their needs and perceptions can vary widely. In some cases, the individual goals and objectives of those within this group are in conflict with each other.
Project Participants
This group of stakeholders includes organizations and individuals who are responsible for planning and executing the project. Typically, this includes the project manager and project team, engineers, constructors, vendors, suppliers, craftspeople, and regulatory agencies at the local, state, and national levels. The involvement of the project participants is again fairly obvious. Success from their viewpoint means accomplishing the project goals and receiving appropriate recognition.
Community Participants
These stakeholders include groups or individuals who are directly affected by the project. Community participants create the environment that surrounds the project. The group can materialize because of environmental, social, political, economic, health, or safety concerns. These stakeholders can be a few households concerned about increased traffic from a new facility or a religious group opposed to a new technology. They can have a profound impact on a project. For example, antinuclear groups have stopped the construction of nuclear power plants, environmentalists have halted highway construction programs, and religious groups have challenged genetic research projects.
TABLE 13A-1. FOUR GROUPS OF PROJECT STAKEHOLDERS
Parasitic Participants
This group of stakeholders presents an interesting and important challenge to project managers. Parasitic participants consist of organizations and individuals who do not have a direct stake in the project. In this group we find the opportunists, the activists, and others who are looking for a focal point for their energies, internal drives, and desires to promote their personal philosophies and views. By definition, this group is distinct and different from those whose members have legitimate concerns about the impact of a project on their community or way of life. The distinction is that the primary motivation of the parasitic participant is one of self-aggrandizement. The project provides the parasitic participants with an opportunity for activity, visibility, and self-fulfillment, and a platform to promote their philosophy or ideas.
This group also covers the information media: radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, etc. The information media use the interest, attention, concerns, or controversy that can surround a project as a vehicle to sell their products. If projects can be made to appear controversial, sensational, dangerous, exciting, or risky, they become more newsworthy. Usually, the information media have no direct stake in the project, yet their influence on the project can be devastating.
Success Modeling
Can we model success? Experience and common sense teach us that some project teams function better than others. Most of the time we do not see what the team actually does, but we do see and judge the final results. To learn from others, we need to look at the specific actions that make them different or better. Ideally, we want to capture this experience in a way that helps guide our thinking and spark our creativity.
Success modeling provides a tool and a methodology that disciplines project managers to define consciously and deliberately the criteria for success of the project. In addition, success modeling provides a framework for team building, strategy development, and actual planning and control of project success.
Models can be used to represent a project (see Table 13A-2). Furthermore, we can simulate the project environment to test the soundness of the project models. Thus, it is possible to test different assumptions about project plans and organizational approaches before actually starting the project. The goal of modeling and simulation is to determine if the project team, plans, procedures, and systems are correct before committing resources to the project.
We can use modeling techniques to build a team for a specific undertaking within a specific environment. Furthermore, these techniques can help to create a cultural framework for team success. Creating a success model involves a number of specific steps that are discussed in the following sections.
Establish Project Success Goals
Defining the project success goals sets the baseline for measuring project success. The success goals must include the stakeholders’ needs and desires as well as the cost, schedule, and technical objectives of the project. We can get information about the stakeholders by talking to them and opening lines of communication—that is, advertising, surveys, public meetings, information hot lines, and so on. In addition, the relationships among stakeholder goals must be established. Are there conflicting goals? Are any of the goals mutually supportive? Do these goals have a positive or negative impact on the project?
A stakeholder study is called for in the conceptual phase. For a straightforward project, the stakeholders’ goals may be simple and easy to understand. They may even be compatible with the project team’s goals. However, for a complex or controversial project, there is usually a bewildering array of stakeholders’ concerns and interests. The project team must sort out the different concerns and interests and determine which stakeholders have the leverage to hinder project success.
TABLE 13A-2. PROJECT MANAGEMENT SUCCESS MODEL
Table 13A-3 presents a technique for identifying and ranking project stakeholders. This technique produces numerical values to establish the power of the stakeholders and the degree of difficulty of their goal. In evaluating project stakeholders’ success goals, we look at the characteristics of the goals (difficulty, conflict with other goals, etc.) and the power that each stakeholder has (to impact project resources, success, and so on). Then, a simple 1 to 5 scale is used to rate each factor. Each rating is multiplied by that factor’s weight to obtain the weighted scale. The scales and weights used should reflect management’s requirements. For example, a finer scale would be used for a project that has many factors to consider.
The final weighted scores are then used to develop a stakeholder success grid. The success grid shows the relationship between the difficulty of the stakeholders’ goals and their power to influence project success. The information from the success grid is ranked by quadrant. In the example shown in Figure 13A-1 stakeholders not directly involved in the project—activist groups, the media, and community leaders—have a major impact on project success.
TABLE 13A-3. TECHNIQUE FOR IDENTIFYING AND RANKING SUCCESS GOALS OF STAKEHOLDERS
FIGURE 13A-1. STAKEHOLDER SUCCESS GRID
From these analyses, the project team members can develop plans and processes to focus their energy and resources where they will do the most good.
Identify the Success Process
Management processes are required to accomplish project work effectively and efficiently. Project work involves planning, organizing, and directing resources and people to address stakeholder issues and project cost, schedule, and technical objectives. Often, stakeholders focus on the qualitative aspects of the project. Their concerns include health, safety, reliability, quality, and environmental issues. Nevertheless, the team must implement a process to manage all the project’s requirements and activities in a systematic manner. For simplicity, we can break down the project’s responsibilities into two types of activities: hard and soft.
Hard activities relate to the business of planning and controlling work scope, task, resources, practices, and standards. Hard activities also encompass the basic management functions of communicating, information processing, and decision making. Soft activities relate to behavioral modifications and opinion shaping. These include training, team building, community relations, advertising, and promotion. Later in this chapter we will discuss ways of dealing with soft project activities.
Map the Success Characteristics. Successful project teams develop a culture and a management style that fits the project environment. These teams understand the political, legal, social, and economic situation, as well as the infrastructure and physical conditions. Project teams must analyze their project environment as a military leader evaluates the terrain before a battle. The team must thoroughly evaluate the demands of its project environment and ask the question, “What must we do and how must we act to be successful under these conditions or in these situations?”
Project success mapping, as shown in Figure 13A-2 first looks at the five components that are vital to project success: (1) the resources available; (2) the difficulty of the project itself; (3) the demands and perceptions of the stakeholders; (4) the conditions and problems presented by the project environment; and (5) the level of management and sponsor commitment. The second step is to determine the project team’s ability to (1) control, (2) influence, and (3) react/respond to all of the requirements and problems presented by the five main components for project success.
The project team controls, influences, or reacts/responds to needs and situations by engaging in both hard and soft activities. In hard activities, the team controls, influences, or reacts/responds to project requirements by managing resources, applying practices or standards, or doing more or less work (scope of work). The team can also control, influence, or react/respond to project requirements through soft activities. That is, the team can seek to shape opinions and attitudes and modify behaviors through training, team building, advertising, promotion, and community relations.
Project success mapping thus provides a simple way for the project team to identify the activities, demands, and conditions that they must manage. From this analysis, the team can determine the kinds of people they want on the team.
Develop a Project Success Scenario
Project teams must decide at the outset how they will deal with stakeholders, handle problems, and respond to emergencies or unexpected events. Team members can describe in brief vignettes how to operate in different situations to ensure success. Project success scenarios help the team members establish the values, standards, norms, and management style that are best for their project environment.
Define the Project Team’s Modus Operandi
Success scenarios provide a way for project teams to develop ideas about their culture and philosophy of operation. However, the team must formalize its thinking and define a specific management style and way of doing business. The team should develop a modus operandi that describes its philosophy, values, vision, and mission. This document is broader in scope than the typical project management manual. The modus operandi is the charter that guides the development of the project team and its policies, procedures, and systems throughout the life of the project.
CONCLUSION
In summary, the success model is designed to reduce the real-life cost of on-the-job learning. By forcing the team to examine the project environment and the stakeholders’ demands, we hope to avoid many project pitfalls. However, a success model is a dynamic instrument, and it should be refined as the project evolves. Thus, the project team can build a knowledge base of ideas, plans, decisions, and results and continually improve the model for future undertakings.
FIGURE 13A-2. PROJECT SUCCESS MAPPING
For a project with which you are familiar, develop a list of all stakeholders. Consider external stakeholders as well as internal.
Are there stakeholders on your list that perhaps were not included in the planning for the actual project? How did this impact project outcomes? What could have been done differently?
Do you agree with the author’s characterization of the media and issue-oriented activist groups as “parasitic”? If not, what might be a more constructive framing of these stakeholder relationships?
FURTHER READING
Gadeken, Owen C. “Why Engineers and Scientists Often Fail as Managers.” Program Manager (January-February 1986).
Marutollo, Frank. “Taking Issue With Theory ‘Y.’” Program Manager (July-August 1984).
Owens, Stephen D. “Leadership Theory and the Project Environment: Which Approach is Applicable?” Proceedings of the Project Management Institute, Houston. (Drexel Hill, PA: PMI, 1983).
Shearon, Ella Mae. “Conflict Management and Team Building for Productive Projects.” Proceedings of the Project Management Institute, Houston. (Drexel Hill, PA.: PMI, 1983).
Whitney, Diana K., and Linda S. Ackerman. “The Fusion Team: A Model of Organic and Shared Leadership.” Journal of the Bay Area OD Network. Vol. 3, No. 2 (December 1983).
Wilemon, David L., and Hans J. Thamhain. “A Model for Developing High Performance Project Teams.” Proceedings of the Project Management Institute, Houston. (Drexel Hill, PA: PMI, 1983).