13.2 Plan Stakeholder Engagement

Decide how you will engage each stakeholder based on what they need.

Planning / Stakeholder · ← PMBOK reference · See it on the map

Why it matters

Engaging every stakeholder the same way wastes effort on people who need little while under-serving the ones whose support the project actually needs.

What done looks like

An engagement plan exists naming how each stakeholder will be involved.

First time tip

Set a separate engagement approach for a stakeholder who could block the project, not the same one used for a stakeholder who is merely interested.

What you need (Inputs)

• Project Charter
• Project Management Plan
• Stakeholder Register
• Agreements
• Enterprise Environmental Factors
• Organizational Process Assets

How you do it (Tools & Techniques)

• Expert Judgment
• Data Gathering
• Data Analysis
• Data Representation
• Decision Making
• Meetings

What you get (Outputs)

• Stakeholder Engagement Plan

Worked example

The board chair gets a one-page summary each month, the director a standing place at the Friday walk-through, and the accessibility advocate is asked to review the teen-room layout before it is built rather than shown it afterwards.

Common pitfalls

• Giving everyone the same weekly email whatever their interest or influence.
• Planning to merely inform a stakeholder whose approval the project actually needs.
• Writing an engagement plan that costs more time than the project can spare.

How driftless helps

• Meetings can be run here.
• Stakeholder Engagement Plan can be created in the wizard.