You will notice that a communication plan includes identifying your stakeholders. Stakeholders are the people (individuals or groups) who are involved in the project or affected by it in any way. To figure out who the stakeholders for your project are, ask yourself a few questions:

- Who pays for the project?

- Who gets your deliverables?

- Who provides input to those deliverables?

- Who oversees the project?

- Who reaps the benefits of the project?

- Who suffers from it?

Don't forget organizations and people such as your vendors, subcontractors, and end users. For those of you in government or high profile industries think about citizens, community action groups, and the press. All these people affect the results in some way and it is critical to identify them in advance.

For example, if you were opening a new bakery who would be some of the stakeholders?