Plan the involvement of identified stakeholders.

Stakeholders are identified from all phases of the project lifecycle by identifying the type of people and functions needing representation in the project and describing their relevance and the degree of interaction for specific project activities. A two-dimensional matrix with stakeholders along one axis and project activities along the other axis is a convenient format for accomplishing this identification. Relevance of the stakeholder to the activity in a particular project phase and the amount of interaction expected would be shown at the intersection of the project phase activity axis and the stakeholder axis.

For the inputs of stakeholders to be useful, careful selection of relevant stakeholders is necessary. For each major activity, identify the stakeholders who are affected by the activity and those who have expertise that is needed to conduct the activity. This list of relevant stakeholders will probably change as the project moves through the phases of the project lifecycle. It is important, however, to ensure that relevant stakeholders in the latter phases of the lifecycle have early input to requirements and design decisions that affect them.

Conduct of this specific practice relies on shared or exchanged information with the previous Plan for Needed Knowledge and Skills specific practice.

Typical Work Products

1.    Stakeholder involvement plan