Do you know how important communication is in contributing to the success of a project? The Project Management Institute (PMI) reported that 56% of them failed because of poor communication. This is very concerning, especially in a working environment where lots of people are in charge, including involved parties. To prevent miscommunications, it is vital to understand every internal party in a task. How exactly to do that? Stakeholder mapping is the solution.
It is the perfect way to understand their needs, roles, and expectations. The method ensures a project runs smoothly. However, despite the importance of this concept, people still do not understand how to craft it. If you feel the same, this article will help you.
This article will provide essential insight about stakeholder mapping, starting with what it’s used for, the benefits, when to do it, and how to make one. By learning all of it, you are expected to use the mapping effectively in your future projects. So, take notes!
What is stakeholder mapping?
Stakeholder mapping is a concept that is used in project management to visualise every party who has an impact on an initiative. The visual consists of both internal and external members, with details of your relationships with them. As a result, you can understand perfectly who has the most influence on your task and how to engage with them efficiently. So, when is the ideal time to do this mapping? Here are a few examples:
- Running a project: Before you run a project, it’s important to gain support from upper-level management. The stakeholder mapping will be beneficial to know their interest and how to propose ideas that align with them.
- Developing a new product: As the involved parties are the decision maker, you need to understand their preferences and demands for the product. If you can make them like you, you potentially get investors who hold a stake in your product development.
- Targeting a new market: External participants, like customers and other businesses, are as crucial as internal ones. If your business is targeting a new market, their channels are useful to support your objectives.
By understanding both types of parties and how to approach them, you can gain the support you need. Therefore, you should focus on building engagement and relationships with them to ensure everything goes as expected. Whether an expert or senior member, they still need contributors to drive ideas and innovation.
The benefits of stakeholder mapping
Stakeholder mapping is not just a regular concept; it is more than that. They are a critical part of project management that contributes to achieving objectives. As pointed out earlier, this mapping is practical to identify which members have influence. But it is not the only benefit, there are still many others you can receive, such as:
- Clear communication: Tailor communication approaches to keep parties in the loop and prevent confusion.
- Improve efficiency effort: Make an effort on the most influential members, as not all of them have the same level of interest.
- Avoid conflicts: Identifying all participants in your projects helps to avoid conflicts and other unwanted scenarios.
- Speed up progress: Knowing the participants and their level of interest will improve the decision-making process, which contributes to fast progression.
As you see, stakeholder mapping plays a key role for you and the teams to run a project. It helps you balance the objectives as well as support members' expectations. If you plan to propose a task, make sure you create this map first to make the journey easier.
Various stakeholder mapping techniques
Stakeholder mapping offers a wide range of techniques for a work. The options have different specifications, so they can align with your project’s needs. This section will provide you with some of the mapping techniques and details on when they are ideal to use.
There are several stakeholder mapping approaches. So, it’s vital to do a deep research on which model suits the project you most. Keep scrolling to get more.
Power-interest grid
This is one of the popular methods where parties are categorised on two matrices: power and interest. They typically made it into four quadrants, each of which required a different level of engagement. As its name implies, this technique is proper to use where you need to prioritise members based on their level of influence and vested interest.
Salience model
Unlike the previous one, the salience model used three attributes for classifying members: power, legitimacy, and urgency. This model is known for the use of Venn diagrams, where all of the attributes intersect with each other. Usually, salience models are for complicated projects that need a deeper understanding of which stakeholders need the most attention.
Power-dynamism matrix
Power-dynamism matrix is a technique that can help you to prioritise members who are both influential and vocal. That is because they are mapped based on their dynamism and power. With their attributes, the environments will easily change, which impacts the outcome. This one is useful in projects where participants' voices are needed.
Stakeholder knowledge base chart
Another stakeholder mapping technique you should consider is a member knowledge base chart. This model is beneficial for looking for members who understand the project. With all of that insight, you can adjust communication and engagement approaches to each party. That is very important since not everyone can be approached the same way.
How to make stakeholder mapping?
By this point, you have learnt more about stakeholder mapping, starting from the benefits and their various techniques. Now, you may be curious about how to make one. First of all, you need to know that the mapping should include components, such as influence and the frameworks for parties. Once it is all well listed, starting to create the map involves the steps below:
- Identify parties: First, write out all of the members, both internal and external, who have an interest in a project.
- Analyse their influence and interest: Next, understand their level of influence and interest in a project to determine how much attention you should give them.
- Category stakeholders: Draw a grid to classify the groups of members, starting with the one needing active communication, the one requiring minimal effort.
- Choose a suitable framework: Start building your stakeholder mapping and include the details component.
- Monitor and adjust: Keep an eye on participants' needs as they tend to change over time and adjust accordingly.
Once you have finished the stakeholder mapping, you can experience a smooth workflow for your project. However, it’s important to build proper relationships with stakeholders to ensure the task is going well. Take note that the map’s design should not be complex and should not have a long text. Make it simple so they are easy to understand and customised.
Final Thoughts
At last, stakeholder mapping is safely said to be a powerful weapon that contributes to a project’s success. By knowing all of their influence and interests, you’ll know what should be prioritised. Plus, it also helps develop a communication approach that suits each group. As a result, you will gain full support from them and increase work victory chances.
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