Stakeholder Analysis Template
Identify stakeholders and plot them to the right communication plan based on their influence and vested interest. Be assured of meeting timelines and expectations by using Miro’s Stakeholder Analysis Template.
About the Stakeholder Analysis Template
When planning and executing a project, it’s important to manage your stakeholders. These can be anyone who could impact the project at hand. At some point in your career, you can expect your organization to have external and internal stakeholders. External stakeholders include clients, industry influencers, subject matter experts, and community leaders; while internal stakeholders include teams and team members, executives, and departments. Managing stakeholders is integral to completing a project on time and meeting expectations, so here’s how to use a stakeholder analysis to help.
Keep reading to learn more about stakeholder analysis.
What is stakeholder analysis?
A stakeholder analysis empowers you to meet those expectations and complete projects on time by identifying individuals, groups, and organizations with a vested interest in a program or process. In a typical stakeholder analysis, you’ll prioritize stakeholders based on their influence on a project and seek to understand how best to interface with them throughout the course of the project.
When to use a stakeholder analysis template
Conduct a stakeholder analysis as early in the project as you can. In most cases, your stakeholders will provide critical intelligence and resources throughout the project. So it’s important to get early buy-in, to ensure they’re bought into the project and have no conflicts that might negatively impact the timeline.
Even if you don’t manage to conduct a stakeholder analysis at the outset, it’s never too late to start. Aligning with your stakeholders and communicating across the organization is crucial to securing your project’s success.
Create your own stakeholder analysis
Making your own stakeholder analysis is easy. Miro’s virtual collaboration platform is the perfect canvas to create and share it. Get started by selecting the Stakeholder Analysis Template, then take the following steps to make one of your own.
1. Start identifying stakeholders
Think about the stakeholders who should be involved in this project. Most stakeholder analyses, including this template, are represented by a visual map of a 2-by-2 matrix. The stakeholder analysis matrix divides stakeholders into High Power and High Interest, High Power and Low Interest, Low Power and High Interest, and Low Power and Low Interest. This format makes it easy to start thinking about which stakeholders to prioritize. Jot down a list, but don’t worry about filling in the stakeholder matrix yet. Remember that stakeholders can include organizations and teams as well as individuals.
2. Group your stakeholders by category
To further narrow down the list, start with organizations and teams, and identify the individual stakeholders within these groups. This will help you communicate with these groups more effectively. Then, group stakeholders by interest, such as those concerned with the financial impact of the project, or those who are necessary for final review.
3. Prioritize stakeholders
Now you can start to map stakeholder interest and influence on the stakeholder matrix itself. Think about those stakeholders likely to eagerly support your project and those who might intentionally or unintentionally act as blockers. Then, plot each stakeholder into the matrix. Determine if they should be kept satisfied with active reports on a project if they will be actively engaged with the day to day of work, if their role is just to monitor progress, or if they simply need to be informed about the project. Many teams find it helpful to draw lines connecting stakeholders with interdependencies. Overall, keep in mind that your priorities might change as the project evolves, and you can always return to the analysis later.
4. Analyze your list of stakeholders
Once the stakeholder analysis matrix is complete, put it to immediate use by discussing it with your team. Go through each stakeholder on the list and ask the following questions: What resources do you need from this stakeholder? How often should we communicate with them, and by what method? What motivates this stakeholder to participate in this project
What is the purpose of a stakeholder analysis?
The purpose of performing a stakeholder analysis is to help you align and communicate better with your stakeholders. This is important to ensure that project timelines are met and that stakeholder expectations are managed according to their level of involvement, influence, and interest. Use the Stakeholder Analysis Template on Miro to ensure nothing is overlooked when it comes to the people and groups relevant to your project.
What are the 4 steps in the process of stakeholder analysis?
The four steps to follow when conducting a stakeholder analysis are: 1) Identify your stakeholders, 2) Group your stakeholders by category, 3) Prioritize and plot your stakeholders on the stakeholder analysis matrix according to influence and interest, and lastly, 4) Analyse your list of stakeholders with your team to determine a plan of action. Once you have completed these four steps of the stakeholder analysis, you and your team should have a good understanding of all of your stakeholders. It should also be clear how best to communicate with each stakeholder, how to manage expectations, and mitigate any delays where dependencies may exist.
Get started with this template right now.
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