How to Create A Stakeholder Register in Project Management?

How to Develop a Stakeholder Register?

Development of the stakeholder register begins with creating a format followed by analyzing, identifying, and evaluating stakeholders. But let's first elucidate the stakeholder register. 

What Is a Stakeholder Register?

The stakeholder register is an important project document that facilitates the recognition of stakeholders by providing relevant information at a place. Primarily, the document assists in identifying, assessing, and classifying the project stakeholders. Therefore, the stakeholder register should be created during the initial planning process, mindfully using available tools. As a project management tool, these registers imply information like the stakeholders' interests, communication preferences, and influence.

What Is a Stakeholder Register Template?

Providing a basic outline to assist the design of the register, the templates are created after good research. They are not project-specific, hence finding wide application across the organization. 

Benefits of a Digital Stakeholder Register Template

A single template finds application in every department, and hence different benefits are listed below -

• Facilitate handling of multiple projects simultaneously
• Ease of finding communication details and updating the same, thus ensuring constant communication
• Provides a single source for each piece of information, along with sorting and categorization
• Acts as a project management tool
• Provides insights into the authority level of stakeholders

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Stakeholder Register Categories

The stakeholder register shall contain four categories:

• Stakeholder Identification

This part will involve basic information like name, designation, contact information, and project position. 

• Stakeholder Assessment

This section is concerned with project and stakeholder relations. It will contain the requirements, influence on the project, communication mode and frequency, their position, expectations, and needs or interests. 

• Stakeholder Classification

It will be project or organization specific. The classification can be based on criteria like administrative or authoritative power of stakeholders, needs and preferences, ease of communication, and others according to relevance. They can be tagged according to critique comments like positive, supportive, neutral, or resistive, etc. Adequate and suitable models are Salience Model, InfluenceImpact Grid, Power/Influence Grid, or Power/Interest Grid. 

• Stakeholder Management Strategy

The strategy can be a separate document for limited use by authorized personnel. It is created through four processes, identification, planning, management, and monitoring the stakeholder engagement. 

Stakeholder Register Uses

Acting as a project management tool, it primarily provides the key to moving forward when the project is stuck due to complicated issues. Stakeholders classified in the project supporters category will be of the most assistance in this scenario. Additionally, it helps in planning, defining success criteria, segregating tasks and responsibilities, understanding the risk factors, and designing deadlines based on stakeholders' schedules. Moreover, the stakeholder register enlightens the project manager of legal stakeholders, past experiences with different stakeholders, identifying the most problematic stakeholder who likes to question unnecessary things or who directs irrelevant changes, and the potential concerns that may arise due to certain stakeholders. 

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Importance of Stakeholder Management

Stakeholders are directly affected by the project. With the numbers varying for different projects, their needs and expectations are also diverse. In such a scenario, stakeholder management is the only mindful thing that can lead to the success of the project. Completing the project based on one stakeholder's requirement while ignoring others or vice versa will not lead to completion. Instead, it may result in the repetition of complete procedures, wrongly utilizing the organization's resources and time. 

What to Include in a Stakeholder Register Template?

Firstly, the stakeholder register template won't be project or department specific. Instead, it will disseminate information for all the projects in the organization. It will include basic information, an assessment of stakeholders, the frequency and type of updates needed, their influence and power on the project and organization, and other relevant information. 

Integrated Features

Apart from stakeholders' information, including other project-based details will assist the users in smooth functioning. The following details can be included-

Project Status Updates

Including the overview of a project involving the project plan, communication plan with each member, achievements, objectives, and goals will certainly provide information access to everyone and reduce the manually performed work. 

Custom Fields

It is a feature that can be included for sorting based on temporary needs. The ability to share the custom fields will further reduce the clutter and save project members time. The typical temporary needs can be sorted based on communication modes, priority, email or phone status, and others.  

Project Overview

The project overview option includes more highlighted information on the project rather than details. It may include answering basic how, why and what of the project to provide a quick idea, and important points like the context of the project, meeting schedules, and the project's impact can be addressed here.

Project Brief

Similar to the previous section, this includes details like deadlines and important reporting times. 

Recommended Apps

Integrating different apps with stakeholder registers will ease communication and document sharing. Here's how:

Gmail

Combining Gmail with a register eases communications. In addition, linking the Gmail workspace provides various options for different modes of communication along with facilitation in scheduling meetings and setting reminders.   

Dropbox

Merging dropbox with the communication part in the stakeholder register assists in uploading heavy files. Alternatively, a simple dropbox link avoids the task of uploading and directly links numerous files and folders. 

Further, connecting messaging and workflow platforms and apps is an easy way to provide a project overview and brief, as mentioned previously. 

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FAQs

1. Who should create the stakeholder register template?

A project manager at the organization can create the stakeholder register template, which different departments can further use for updating the stakeholders' credentials. An individual with maximum resources should primarily fill the template for usage. 

2. What should a stakeholder register template include?

Apart from basic information, the communication frequency and types of updates to be disseminated to the stakeholder should be included. Additionally, preference, needs, power level, and critique level are highly necessary for reference. 

3. How (and when) should you identify project stakeholders?

The projects directly impact stakeholders. The people involved in the project and taking it forward become the stakeholder-based on these criteria. Thus, the stakeholder analysis process should be carried out to understand the affected individuals before starting the project. 

4. How do you use a stakeholder register template?

Duplicate the template and fill the register based on the requirements and people involved in a specific project. The stakeholder register template should include project start and end dates and a brief overview for immediate revision. 

5. For what types of projects should you use a stakeholder register template?

The stakeholder register template is not project-specific. It can be used for any project and should be used for every project. The categorization of stakeholders facilitates the smooth functioning and designing of the project.