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Optimizing Stakeholder Engagement

Optimizing Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholders are individuals or organizations who are involved in the project, or whose interests are positively or negatively affected by the result of the project. Stakeholders are essential as the project’s success or failure largely depends on the fulfillment of stakeholder’s needs or expectations. Due to this, the engagement of stakeholders intrinsically becomes an essential part of project management.

The key to effective stakeholder engagement is “planning.” One has to systematically identify and prioritize stakeholders, along with establishing proper communication modes with them. So let’s look at the steps in the strategy to develop and optimize stakeholder engagement.

1. Stakeholder Identification

The first step is to identify who all are being affected by the projects. It would be best if you considered all the individuals, interest groups, and right holders who would have an interest in the project. If you are running the project for a client, you may be in contact with the high-level stakeholders. However, engaging other stakeholders, especially at the beginning of the project, will help you uncover risks and gain additional sources of expertise.

2. Analyze the Stakeholders

Once you have identified the stakeholders, your next step should be to analyze them and understand how you should engage with them. You can make use of techniques like the power-interest grid. The method works by considering the power and interest level of stakeholders.

power-interest grid
  • Players: Players are stakeholders with high interest in the project and hold high power over the project as well. These are the prime stakeholders for a project, and one should collaborate with them.
  • Subjects: Subjects are stakeholders who are profoundly affected by the project and hence are involved in it but cannot change significant decisions. They can help a lot during the projects, and it is good to keep them engaged throughout the project.
  • Context Setters: These are the stakeholders that hold high power but take little interest in the project. It is good to consult with them regularly but don’t let them dictate the decisions as well.
  • Crowd: These are low interest and low power stakeholders. As they neither have the interest nor the power to affect your project, it is sufficient to keep them informed about the project growth.

The power-interest grid model will also help you with the prioritization of stakeholders.

3. Stakeholder Communication:

There will be a difference in how various stakeholders prefer to communicate and take part in the project. It is essential to identify how you can effectively communicate with the stakeholders. Also, consider communicating with them as early as possible and with as much transparency as possible. You will also have to make decisions on how often you would like to communicate with various stakeholders through the project.

4. Construct a Stakeholder Management Team:

Decide or identify who all are working with the stakeholders. Make the expectations clear with each member of the team and devise a clear and consistent reporting for each member. Properly utilizing and channeling the company resources and contact touchpoints will make sure that none of the crucial information coming from the stakeholder is missed.

5. Stakeholder Data Collection and Reporting:

You can make use of specialized software and team support tools to manage all the communications centrally. Try to find a solution that facilitates a quick input, tracking, and cross-referencing of information. Also, pay attention to the reporting functionality of the tool.

6. Monitoring Stakeholder relationship and improvement:

Stakeholders pay a vital role throughout the process. You will have to monitor stakeholder engagement and overall relationship with the stakeholders constantly. Doing so will maximize stakeholder engagement and, thus, the project support.

Constant involvement and inputs from the stakeholders can transcend into the success of a project, and this necessitates the need for effective stakeholder engagement. You can also make use of the Agile Principles of Stakeholder Management to gain insight into the process of maintaining better relations with the stakeholders.

Principles of Stakeholder Management

If you are looking for more learning iterations in the domain, you can take up any structured course in the project management domain. PMP and PMI-ACP are two of the most prominent certifications in the spectrum and can help you explore similar essential concepts and practices for effective project management. Visit us at www.certificationplanner.com to explore the complete training catalog or connect with our learning experts at support@certificationplanner.com to know more about the learning opportunities. Happy Learning!

5 Global Trends in Project Management that you should be aware of

Business setups have become complex. The requirements, threats solutions, and execution now face variables that were not in the picture a couple of decades ago. So, it does not come as a shock that the means to tackle them have become more intricate as well. Project management has evolved. It has evolved to an extent where it no longer can be visualized as a single set process but has branched out and is becoming more complex by the hour. 

While you might have witnessed the subtle shift as an experienced professional in project management or might have been born into the changing dynamics as a fresher starting his career, it is important to identify and acknowledge the trend shift. In this article, we will identify a couple of changing trends in Project Management spectrum and discuss what you can do in order to stay tuned with these shifts.

  1. Expanding Automation and engagement of Artificial Intelligence

With the increase in the number of variables, it becomes difficult to monitor all of them on a regular basis. Owing to this, Automation is being used extensively to monitor these variables and AI is being used to deduce appropriate actions. Use of AI and machine learning basically helps you free up space for you to attend to other important aspects of projects. In the current scenario, automation is radially taking up small tasks like setting up alerts for business meetings, sending an initial response based on multiple triggers like a greeting message to a new client visiting your website for the first time. While automation is taking off small tasks from your plate AI is gaining momentum is improving the responses. For example, in digital products and services spectrum, AI algorithms are being used to tailor companies’ products and services in real time to suit the needs of the customers. AI also has the potential of assisting in the prioritization of tasks and allocation of resources. AI bots are now capable of running the simulations and delivering optimized scheduling and allocation of recourses in real time, adding to the adaptability of processes.

Another area where automation and machine learning is finding utility is the collection of data and data analysis. AI research teams are developing machine learning systems capable of augmenting a project manager’s decision-making ability based on the observations of other projects. All of these makes Automation, AI and machine learning key players in project management spectrum in the coming years.  

What do you need to do?

Acceptance is the initial step. Use of these tools can help you clear out space for you to indulge in more human-powered relationships with your team and clients. You can start small with your emails. You can sort your inbox based on multiple filters that will keep emails from your clients and employees separate and offer much better inbox management. While this was a very small example, you can also:

1. Automate scheduling, resource allocation and invoicing through various project management tools.

2. Identify bottlenecks and eliminate them. You can allocate AI to monitor the process and identify bottlenecks.

2. The advent of the hybrid approach

Agile is no longer a new concept. It is being used extensively in various organizations. The waterfall approach is being alienated from a lot of areas. However, both agile, waterfall along with other methodologies might not produce the best result individually. The Hybrid Approach has shown great prospects and organizations are drifting towards a combination of these methodologies during the lifecycle of a project. However, the application of these methods in an optimal way remains tricky.

What do you need to do?

It would be beneficial to be updated with the new methodologies. If you want to use various methodologies, you need to know them properly and need to develop the skills to identify the best methodology in a given scenario.

3. The growing need for Managers with High Emotional quotient

While AI and Machine learning have the potential of sharing your workload, they do lace in the aspect of providing the human touch. Several activities like building team dynamics, coordination, initiating learning within teams require a high level of involvement from the project managers and a high degree of understanding between individuals that can be achieved by managers with a high degree of emotional quotient. Every team requires an empathetic listener, a tactful negotiator and a motivational leader at some point or the other.  

What do you need to do?

Developing people skills becomes of prime importance if you want to transform into a successful manager or leader. Educate yourself on the roles of EM in project management. While it is important to respect the emotions of others, recognizing your own emotions is important as well.

4. Increasing engagement of IoT

IoT is basically a global connection of devices that can access the internet and communicate with one another and other things. With the explosion of digital infrastructure, IoT has intermingled with project management in every aspect from the collection of data to the collaboration of teams. IoT can greatly reduce the human intervention and thus cost of function as they can analyze and respond to their environment. For example, in a production project, various IoT devices can be installed into the various production units to monitor the need for maintenance. In such a case, the project manager can eliminate the need for regular and manual inspections and can get a notification in advance.

What do you need to do?

As a project manager, you will have to find ways to optimize the use of IoT in your existing system. You can use it extensively for monitoring and gathering real-time data.

5. The increasing importance of gathering data and executing prime analysis

Most of the project management and quality assurance methodologies make extensive use of data. We now have the option of gathering extensive and accurate data. But data without the means of analyzing the data and producing sustainable action items are not of much value. As a result, organizations are paying extensive importance to data analytics. The profitability is now being directly linked to how effectively the data can be transformed into suitable action steps.

What do you need to do?

A direct requirement of this scenario is that the Project manager will have to directly step into data analysis. You will have to learn to incorporate data analysis into your process and stay up-to-date with the tools for data visualization and analysis. You will also have to use (and choose) data in ways that effectively present risks, progress, and results to stakeholders.

Project management often changes the way organizations operate. Having an efficient project manager can make all the difference in the execution of the project. If you are a professional working in project management spectrum, you need to keep working to maintain your competitive edge. If you are a fresher with the desire to build a career in project management, structured learning can help you acquire multiple skillsets necessary for success. Certification Planner can assist you no matter which group you belong to. An easy method of achieving both these objectives is by taking up certification courses. While the CAPM certification training offered by Certification Planner can help you build the basics that you need to know before while starting your career in project management, certifications like PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, and PgMP can help you validate your knowledge in project management and identify the latest advancements in the domain. All our courses are designed by certified instructors with over 15 years of industry experience. With CP’s certification courses, you also get access to complimentary study material, practice tests based out of actual examination, application assistance and a 100% pass guarantee. You can visit our website www.certificationplanner.com or drop an email at support@certificationplanner.com. You can also speak to our training experts directly at +1 4084185586. Happy Learning!

PMI’s announces changes in PMP Exam Process

PMI is a no profit global organization assigned with the task of driving research, training, and certification for project management. With organizations investing heavily in project management and professionals involved in project management, the importance of the task set maintained by PMI has increased multiple folds.

PMI holding true to its end by conducting regular research to understand the changing trends in project management and materializing it through PMBOK, and an array of certifications in project management that are governed by PMI.

The last major release by PMI was in the form of the 6th edition of PMBOK. PMI had made several big changes in PMP; one of the most sought-after certifications in project management spectrum, like the introduction of Agile methodologies in PMI.

PMI is all set to make some major changes to the PMP examination. While the company has not explicitly stated the changes that it intends to make, it has indicated that the changes would be aimed at improving the certification journey of candidates.

An overview of the Changes

PMI intends to improve the support it provides to the customers’ career journey. The organization is planning to create iterative steps to help candidates acquire the skill sets necessary to succeed in the project management spectrum.  This may manifest as PMI linking its certifications to one another to create stepping stones to acquired excellence.

PMI has also indicated towards creating more customization options within its certifications. PMI has mentioned on its website that it will be targeting the “one-size-fit-all approach” with the customizations it intends to make. It is really early to comment on the changes PMI is going to make but we can expect variations in the standard certifications. However, we will have to wait for the formal word of PMI to find out the actual structure and changes.

Modernization is another aspect that PMI is working in. PMI has already included agile in its last update and we might expect similar endeavors from PMI. Whatever changes are made, they will be aligned towards giving the candidates a better experience and practice of real-life situations, learning, and improved tools.

PMI will not only be helping candidates acquire new skill sets but will also be working towards recognizing those skills.

New Examination Partner

PMI has already announced the first change: a partnership with Pearson VUE for better training delivery and introduction of Online proctored examination for CAPM and PMI-ACP. The partnership with Pearson VUE has made the process of taking up test easier by introducing over 5000 test location globally.

Pearson VUE comes with multiple advantages like additional test locations, option for online proctoring, additional benefits to US Service members like taking the test in their service area and use of an advanced scheduling and examination platform.

If you want to know more regarding the topic, you can refer to our article “PMI Switches to Pearson VUE and Online Proctored Testing” which elaborates on the transition process between the old and the new Pearson platform, the benefits and the limitations of the proctored examination.

PMI has also announced that candidates can now opt for online proctored examination for CAPM and PMI-ACP. While this might be a test run and PMI may make the option of online proctored test open for all the certifications, it has mentioned that, as of now, the online proctored test is available only for CAPM and PMI-ACP. Here is a good read for you if you want to learn more about CAPM and PMI-ACP online proctored tests: “CAPM and PMI – ACP Online Proctored Examination”. The article details the process of scheduling and taking up the proctored test. 

Certification Planner is committed to connecting you with the most updated information of Project management spectrum and with front-of-the-class training solutions. We will keep you updated with the changes made by PMI. Meanwhile, you can check-out the certifications offered by us at www.certificationplanner.com. We pride ourselves of our prime quality and present to you optimized training courses in CAPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, PgMP and PMI-RMP. You can contact us at support@certificationplanner.com or call us at +1 4084185586. Happy Learning!