Stakeholder Analysis - Overview

Overview

Stakeholder analysis is a term that refers to the action of analyzing the attitudes of stakeholders towards something (most frequently a project). It is frequently used during the preparation phase of a project to assess the attitudes of the stakeholders regarding the potential changes. Stakeholder analysis can be done once or on a regular basis to track changes in stakeholder attitudes over time.

A stakeholder is any person or organization, who can be positively or negatively impacted by, or cause an impact on the actions of a company, government, or organization. Types of stakeholders are:

• Primary stakeholders: are those ultimately affected, either positively or negatively by an organization's actions.
• Secondary stakeholders: are the ‘intermediaries’, that is, persons or organizations who are indirectly affected by an organization's actions.
• Key stakeholders: (who can also belong to the first two groups) have significant influence upon or importance within an organization.

Therefore, stakeholder analysis has the goal of developing cooperation between the stakeholder and the project team and, ultimately, assuring successful outcomes for the project. Stakeholder analysis is performed when there is a need to clarify the consequences of envisaged changes, or at the start of new projects and in connection with organizational changes generally. It is important to identify all stakeholders for the purpose of identifying their success criteria and turning these into quality goals. (Rodi et al, 2012)