Stakeholder management

Why do stakeholders contribute?

May 15, 2013

I’ve recently read Project Stakeholder Management by Pernille Eskerod and Anna Lund Jepsen (part of Gower’s Fundamentals of Project Management series). It talks about why stakeholders contribute to projects. You might think that it’s obvious. After all, your project sponsor is probably the one who wanted this project to happen in the first place, and [...]

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4 ways to proactively manage stakeholders

May 1, 2013

Stakeholder management is a hot topic at the moment, given that A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)—Fifth Edition now includes a tenth knowledge area on managing stakeholders. So Pernille Eskerod and Anna Lund Jepsen’s book, Project Stakeholder Management, is quite timely. In it, they argue that proactive stakeholder management is [...]

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Winning stakeholder support when time and energy are limited

February 25, 2013

This is a guest post by Jo Ann Sweeney. Why should project teams invest resources in communication activities is a question I’m often asked – both from people who are not convinced of the value, and also from those looking for the words to use with their leadership team. For me the crux of this [...]

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Project Management in the Hundred Acre Wood

October 1, 2012

We’ve been doing 360 degree assessments at work and when I was asked to describe a colleague as a shape, colour, animal or fictional character, and to explain my reasoning, I drew a blank. Matching shapes to people is not my strong point. Some of you may know that my Master’s degree is in Children’s [...]

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4 Reasons why your Project Board isn’t working

July 25, 2012

Who on your project will have the authority to make decisions at the most senior level? Who will get you access to the resources you require?  Who will unblock problems and sign off the extra money the project needs? These are all functions of a Project Board (or Steering Group). A Project Board is made [...]

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Why you should assume positive intent

October 19, 2011

Students coming to study in London for the new university term will quickly realise that in the capital you generally do not assume positive intent. In fact, Not Assuming Positive Intent is the default. You assume that other commuters will fight you for the last tube seat. You assume that your pockets will get picked [...]

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BAs and PMs working together (part 4)

December 7, 2009

In this final instalment of the ‘working together’ series, I’ll be looking at how to improve the working relationships between project managers and business analysts. Changing working relationships is often more about culture than concrete tasks, but there are some things you can do to smooth any blips in the way that project managers and [...]

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BAs and PMs working together (part 3)

November 30, 2009

Last week I wrote about what project managers value when working with business analysts.  This week I want to focus on what we don’t. Don’t worry: it’s not that bad! The differences in the ways that project managers work and the ways that business analysts work means that it’s not always easy to work together. [...]

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BAs and PMs working together (part 2)

November 23, 2009

Last week I wrote about the way that project managers work, and how this relates to OTOBOS.  This week I want to explain what project managers value in our working relationships with business analysts. Project managers see BAs as architects.  They are detailed, they decide on and build solutions, they work in a methodical way.  [...]

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BAs and PMs working together (part 1)

November 16, 2009

About a month ago I spoke at the Business Analysis Conference about how project managers work, and how business analysts and project managers can work together more successfully.  As you can imagine, telling a room full of BAs that project managers don’t want to hear all that detail and analysis paralysis was received with a [...]

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