Background Information When planning a project, developing a strong understanding of the stakeholders will contribute to project success This activity is called Stakeholder Analysis With stakeholder analysis, the goal is to attempt to see the project and its potential impact from their (the stakeholders) perspective (asking how might they react) In the first part of this quiz you will review the summary statements provided about each stakeholder identified in the project table 1 below The statements will provide some background on each stakeholder for you to further carry out your analysis In the second part, you will prioritize your stakeholders such that you can gain further insight into if they have the potential to block or advance the project This will be done with an impact influence and cooperation threat grid This will also allow you to visualize the relationships relative to others The Stakeholders Stakeholder Perspective Company X (the client) Project Sponsor They are a small, startup company specializing in bake sales, that is sponsoring the project They are a budget and time constrained organization that just want to see the project done after a previous failure The project sponsor is responsible for direct control and decision making for the project They are not concerned about the technology used as long as the uptime, and data storage requirements are met They have made the request that Digital Ocean is used for hosting infrastructure While they are concerned about the success of the project, they are busy with their main business so communications should be restricted to emails with weekly updates They do not like phone calls Company X (the client) CEO The client's CEO is interested in the success of the project as they are responsible for funding the project They are not concerned about the practical details, just want to see the project delivered to specification before November 15th, 2016 They have expressed concerns about cost overruns as well as the cost of hosting and credit card payment processing based on a previous failure of the same project The CEO is busy with the general operations of the company and has requested that communications be done via phone only Company X (the client) IT support The client has an in house IT expert that will be responsible for the day to day operations of the site once it is live They will also be responsible for managing backups as well as being interested in the success of the project as they are responsible for managing it and generating reports from the site They are concerned about the ease of interface use and have expressed concerns about the potential complexity (as they will be using it) The CEO has indicated that the IT expert should be consulted about design and testing decisions but the project sponsor has not indicated this is necessary the sponsor did indicate that the IT expert is available for research, planning and testing They prefer communications via email Digital Ocean They are an American cloud infrastructure provider thatprovisionsvirtual servers for software developers They maintain servers in Canada for compliance reasons They have solid customer support and a complete self service portal They are responsive to requests, and all requests are made via ticket generation with the self service portal All infrastructure (compute, stored) is provided by Digital Ocean for this project Project Manager The selected project manager is a keen and diligent person They have regular access to both phone and email as well as other communication channels This is their only project and will be deeply involved The PM is motivated by a completion bonus, if the project is delivered ahead of time and within budget Development Company CEO Your development team and PM report of the development company's CEO The CEO wants to ensure that the project is delivered on time and on budget They work with the team to help remove any potential roadblocks, manage the relationship with the project sponsor and ensure a conducive work environment Your CEO prefers weekly summaries of activities but doesn't mind being called directly for important issues Development Team The development team is focused on the generation of the code base They are free to work their own hours, often from off site In general, they don't like getting too many emails as it disrupts their productivity Additionally, the development team is salaried with no performance bonuses They are flexible in terms of the communication tools used (i e slack) Credit Card Processing Agency The credit card processing agency is focused on providing a credit card purchasing API that can be used in the development of the website They also provide payment processing for all transactions An account manager has been assigned to deal with the financial aspects of the system and a technical contact has been assigned for support A testing sandbox is available for use but requires activation by calling the account manager to enable The sandbox is only available for 7 days at a time and can be re activated by emailing the technical manager Once the site is ready for live testing, the technical manager and account manager need to be emailed requesting that the live account be activated Performance data can be accessed on transactions via a secure web portal Clients The clients are paying users that will interact with the site The sponsor has provided contact for 5 clients (from their existing business) to be involved in research and testing during different phases of the project Clients have agreed to check email daily in response to requests for testing A larger group of clients is available for deployment testing once the site is live They are subscribed to a mailing list If the site does not meet the expectations of the clients, it could be disastrous for Company X and impact their reputation in the future Public The public are users of the system that are not registered with the system They will not have access to the development site The project sponsor and client CEO are concerned about the adoption of the site as traditionally bake sales have used paper based marketing If the site does not meet the expectations of the public, it could be disastrous for Company X and impact their reputation in the future Advertisers The advertisers will be able to post ads on the website for a fee They are concerned about ad placement, display frequency and cost A group of advertisers has been provided by the sponsor to participate in research and testing during different phases on the project The group is varied in make up and will require communications via phone when their involvement is required The sponsor is also very sensitive about the relationship with the current advertisers and has indicated that they do not want anything to impact their relationship with existing and future advertisers as a large portion of their current revenue is secured via advertising When conducting the stakeholder analysis, it is important to assess each stakeholder's importance and their relative power influence in the project For example, a stakeholder may be important in a project, but have a low influence in the overall success The other item to keep in mind is that a stakeholder's interest in a project can change with respect to the phase of the project When examining each stakeholder, the following questions can be asked and assessed to gauge the level of influence and impact on the project What are the responsibilities of the stakeholders in regards to the project What are stakeholder's expectations with regards to the project How will stakeholders benefit Do stakeholders have any conflicting interests in the project How committed is the stakeholder to the project Is he she willing to commit tangible resources If the stakeholder is not managed correctly, what are the consequences for the project What is the relationship between stakeholders and can then influence others and who is are the dominant stakeholders Do any stakeholders present a threat to the project Do any stakeholders have a financial or emotional interest in the outcome of the project (and is it positive or negative) What information do they want and how should it be communicated Often these questions will require stakeholder interviews but in this case, you will have to infer information from the details presented There are two tools that are useful in assessing stakeholders The influence impact matrix helps us to prioritize stakeholder requests when examining a project as well as understanding who potentially has the greatest impact on the project The level of involvement a stakeholder has is termed as influence while and the ability of the stakeholder to bring out a desired change is termed impact Both are important to chart and analyze Using the grid in figure 1, you can place the stakeholders into the different quadrants to help build an understanding of the influence and impact a stakeholder has Assess the influence and impact of each stakeholder and place them in the appropriate grid their resulting location determines how the relationship with them should be managed (with suggestions noted in the grid) When placing stakeholders in each quadrant, you can use their placement relative to others in the same quadrant to indicate their impact influence Figure 1 Influence Impact Grid High Keep Satisfied Manage Closely Influence Monitor Keep Informed Low Low High Impact Figure 1 Influence Impact GridHigh Type Supportive Type Mixed Potential for Strategy Involve Strategy Collaborate Cooperation Type Marginal Type Non cooperative Low Strategy Monitor Strategy Monitor Low High Potential for Threat Figure 2 Cooperation Threat GridWhat is your Current level How How could Persuasion Power What do you What is strategy for Stakeholder of Communications important is stakeholders enhancing (Influence of (Impact Names and support (Low want from important to needs (P P CN) the block stakeholder decision) decision Roles Stakeholder Med stakeholders stakeholders (Low Med your efforts support (Low Med making) (Low Med High) High) (Low Med High) High) High)

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Background Information When planning a project, developing a strong understanding of the stakeholders will contribute to project success. This activity is called Stakeholder Analysis .

Background Information

When planning a project, developing a strong understanding of the stakeholders will contribute to project success. This activity is calledStakeholder Analysis. With stakeholder analysis, the goal is to attempt to see the project and its potential impact from their (the stakeholders) perspective (asking how might they react).

In the first part of this quiz you will review the summary statements provided about each stakeholder identified in the project table 1 below. The statements will provide some background on each stakeholder for you to further carry out your analysis. In the second part, you will prioritize your stakeholders such that you can gain further insight into if they have the potential to block or advance the project. This will be done with an impact/influence and cooperation/threat grid. This will also allow you to visualize the relationships relative to others.

The Stakeholders:

Stakeholder	Perspective
Company X (the client) - Project Sponsor	They are a small, startup company specializing in bake sales, that is sponsoring the project. They are a budget and time constrained organization that just want to see the project done after a previous failure. The project sponsor is responsible for direct control and decision making for the project. They are not concerned about the technology used as long as the uptime, and data storage requirements are met. They have made the request that Digital Ocean is used for hosting infrastructure. While they are concerned about the success of the project, they are busy with their main business so communications should be restricted to emails with weekly updates. They do not like phone calls.
Company X (the client) - CEO	The client's CEO is interested in the success of the project as they are responsible for funding the project. They are not concerned about the practical details, just want to see the project delivered to specification before November 15th, 2016. They have expressed concerns about cost overruns as well as the cost of hosting and credit card payment processing based on a previous failure of the same project. The CEO is busy with the general operations of the company and has requested that communications be done via phone only.
Company X (the client) - IT support	The client has an in-house IT expert that will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the site once it is live. They will also be responsible for managing backups as well as being interested in the success of the project as they are responsible for managing it and generating reports from the site. They are concerned about the ease of interface use and have expressed concerns about the potential complexity (as they will be using it). The CEO has indicated that the IT expert should be consulted about design and testing decisions but the project sponsor has not indicated this is necessary; the sponsor did indicate that the IT expert is available for research, planning and testing. They prefer communications via email.
Digital Ocean	They are an American cloud infrastructure provider thatprovisionsvirtual servers for software developers. They maintain servers in Canada for compliance reasons. They have solid customer support and a complete self-service portal. They are responsive to requests, and all requests are made via ticket generation with the self-service portal. All infrastructure (compute, stored) is provided by Digital Ocean for this project.
Project Manager	The selected project manager is a keen and diligent person. They have regular access to both phone and email as well as other communication channels. This is their only project and will be deeply involved. The PM is motivated by a completion bonus, if the project is delivered ahead of time and within budget.
Development Company CEO	Your development team and PM report of the development company's CEO. The CEO wants to ensure that the project is delivered on time and on budget. They work with the team to help remove any potential roadblocks, manage the relationship with the project sponsor and ensure a conducive work environment. Your CEO prefers weekly summaries of activities but doesn't mind being called directly for important issues.
Development Team	The development team is focused on the generation of the code base. They are free to work their own hours, often from off-site. In general, they don't like getting too many emails as it disrupts their productivity. Additionally, the development team is salaried with no performance bonuses. They are flexible in terms of the communication tools used (i.e. slack).
Credit Card Processing Agency	The credit card processing agency is focused on providing a credit card purchasing API that can be used in the development of the website. They also provide payment processing for all transactions. An account manager has been assigned to deal with the financial aspects of the system and a technical contact has been assigned for support. A testing sandbox is available for use but requires activation by calling the account manager to enable. The sandbox is only available for 7 days at a time and can be re-activated by emailing the technical manager. Once the site is ready for live testing, the technical manager and account manager need to be emailed requesting that the live account be activated. Performance data can be accessed on transactions via a secure web portal.
Clients	The clients are paying users that will interact with the site. The sponsor has provided contact for 5 clients (from their existing business) to be involved in research and testing during different phases of the project. Clients have agreed to check email daily in response to requests for testing. A larger group of clients is available for deployment testing once the site is live. They are subscribed to a mailing list. If the site does not meet the expectations of the clients, it could be disastrous for Company X and impact their reputation in the future.
Public	The public are users of the system that are not registered with the system. They will not have access to the development site. The project sponsor and client CEO are concerned about the adoption of the site as traditionally bake sales have used paper- based marketing. If the site does not meet the expectations of the public, it could be disastrous for Company X and impact their reputation in the future.
Advertisers	The advertisers will be able to post ads on the website for a fee. They are concerned about ad placement, display frequency and cost. A group of advertisers has been provided by the sponsor to participate in research and testing during different phases on the project. The group is varied in make up and will require communications via phone when their involvement is required. The sponsor is also very sensitive about the relationship with the current advertisers and has indicated that they do not want anything to impact their relationship with existing and future advertisers as a large portion of their current revenue is secured via advertising.

When conducting the stakeholder analysis, it is important to assess each stakeholder's importance and their relative power/influence in the project. For example, a stakeholder may be important in a project, but have a low influence in the overall success. The other item to keep in mind is that a stakeholder's interest in a project can change with respect to the phase of the project. When examining each stakeholder, the following questions can be asked and assessed to gauge the level of influence and impact on the project

What are the responsibilities of the stakeholders in regards to the project?
What are stakeholder's expectations with regards to the project?
How will stakeholders benefit?
Do stakeholders have any conflicting interests in the project?
How committed is the stakeholder to the project? Is he/she willing to commit tangible resources?
If the stakeholder is not managed correctly, what are the consequences for the project?
What is the relationship between stakeholders and can then influence others and who is/are the dominant stakeholders?
Do any stakeholders present a threat to the project?
Do any stakeholders have a financial or emotional interest in the outcome of the project (and is it positive or negative)?
What information do they want and how should it be communicated?

Often these questions will require stakeholder interviews but in this case, you will have to infer information from the details presented. There are two tools that are useful in assessing stakeholders. The influence/impact matrix helps us to prioritize stakeholder requests when examining a project as well as understanding who potentially has the greatest impact on the project. The level of involvement a stakeholder has is termed asinfluencewhile and the ability of the stakeholder to bring out a desired change is termedimpact. Both are important to chart and analyze.

Using the grid in figure 1, you can place the stakeholders into the different quadrants to help build an understanding of the influence and impact a stakeholder has. Assess the influence and impact of each stakeholder and place them in the appropriate grid; their resulting location determines how the relationship with them should be managed (with suggestions noted in the grid). When placing stakeholders in each quadrant, you can use their placement relative to others in the same quadrant to indicate their impact/influence.

Figure 1 - Influence/Impact Grid

High Keep Satisfied Manage Closely Influence Monitor Keep Informed Low Low High Impact Figure 1 - Influence/Impact GridHigh Type: Supportive Type: Mixed Potential for Strategy: Involve Strategy: Collaborate Cooperation Type: Marginal Type: Non-cooperative Low Strategy: Monitor Strategy: Monitor Low High Potential for Threat Figure 2 - Cooperation/Threat GridWhat is your Current level How How could Persuasion Power What do you What is strategy for Stakeholder of Communications important is stakeholders enhancing (Influence of (Impact Names and support? (Low want from important to needs (P+P = CN) the block stakeholder decision) /decision Roles Stakeholder? - Med stakeholders? stakeholders? (Low - Med your efforts? support? (Low - Med making) (Low - Med - - High) - High) (Low - Med - High) High) - High)