Stakeholder mapping

Once you are confident you have identified all of your stakeholders, the next step is to assess their interest and influence. This is formally known as stakeholder mapping, which is a topic of many management studies and papers because it is an important and powerful tool for many professions. It is generally viewed as useful in business and in everyday life improvement advice.

As with most business concepts, it's best illustrated by a classic four-box diagram, with two dimensions across each axis. The most commonly used and best-known dimensions include the following:

• Power
• Influence
• Interest or need
• Support or attitude

My favorite example and application of a four-box stakeholder map is by Vivian Klosterman, the founder of Continuing Professional Development, an online academy of professional training and general self-help.

Vivian's model uses influence and interest as its two dimensions. The reason this is my favorite example is because of its simplicity and how easy it is to apply in most contexts, especially in software development. As both developers and managers, we have a good idea of who is interested in our products, and who is influential or instrumental in the products' development and usage. This offers more value by going beyond the general list of the project sponsor, development team, and application user groups, which is still useful for practical purposes, but less insightful in stakeholder analysis.

The following stakeholder map illustrates what each category of stakeholder needs from you:

Depending on which box your identified stakeholder resides in, you should deploy the appropriate level and type of contact, as well as the suitable amount of thought and attention toward them.

The group to manage most thoroughly is in the top-right corner. For example, if your software product is a consumer app, then this is most likely to include the end user who is the person paying for the app. Therefore, you should pay them the highest level of attention, listen and be responsive to their needs, and keep them completely informed of how you satisfy their requirements.

All of these appropriate considerations and actions go toward building a productive and mutually beneficial working relationship between you and your stakeholders. The key to good relationships is often effective communication. This is the goal of developing communication management plans. It arcs back to the important key skills that we talked about early, of communication, communication, communication, and specifically, the three types – inbound, internal, and outbound.