Manage Stakeholder Engagement is the process of communicating and working with stakeholders to meet their needs/expectations, address issues as they occur, and foster appropriate stakeholder engagement in project activities throughout the project life cycle.

 

The key benefit of this process is that it allows the project manager to increase support and minimize resistance from stakeholders, significantly increasing the chances to achieve project success.

​

Manage Stakeholder Engagement involves activities such as:

  * Engaging stakeholders at appropriate project stages to obtain or confirm their continued commitment to the success of the project ;
  * Managing stakeholder expectations through negotiation and communication, ensuring project goals are achieved ;
  * Addressing potential concerns that have not yet become issues and anticipating future problems that may be raised by stakeholders.

    Such concerns need to be identified and discussed as soon as possible to assess associated project risks ; and
  * Clarifying and resolving issues that have been identified.

​

Managing stakeholder engagement helps to increase the probability of project success by ensuring that stakeholders clearly understand the project goals, objectives, benefits, and risks.

 

This enables them to be active supporters of the project and to help guide activities and project decisions.

By anticipating people’s reactions to the project, proactive actions can be taken to win support or minimize negative impacts.

​

The ability of stakeholders to influence the project is typically highest during the initial stages and gets progressively lower as the project progresses.

 

The project manager is responsible for engaging and managing the various stakeholders in a project and may call upon the project sponsor to assist as needed. Active management of stakeholder involvement decreases the risk of the project failing to meet its goals and objectives.