lessons learned in stakeholder management including a case study presented at the PM Camp Vienna 2012

1. Stakeholder Management
How to develop a tailored strategy
www.p-a-m.org

2. Thomas Spielhofer
•has facilitated the introduction of Scrum as responsible manager in
different organisations and is now supporting others in doing so as
consultant.
•has 15 years of IT experience leading heavy-weight international projects
based on IPMA and CMMI as well as lean product development initiatives
based on XP and Scrum.
•is co-editor of PAM - Platform for Agile Management www.p-a-m.org,
dedicating some of his time to research and learning more about agile
methods.
Siegfried Kaltenecker
 is an organisational consultant with 20 years of experience in
leadership training and management coaching.
 co-owns and co-manages Loop Consultancy GmbH, an open
consulting network, specialised in IT business, financial services, and
industry www.loop-beratung.at.
 is also a Certified ScrumMaster, co-editor of PAM, and co-author of
“Kanban in der IT. Eine Kultur der kontinuierlichen Verbesserung
schaffen.” (Munich 2012 – currently only available in German but about
to be published in English too)

3. Platform for Agile Management
Resources for leaders and organizations
Posts on Leadership, Management, Change
Case Studies on Agile initiatives
Research based on 360 degree interviews
Review of Lean/Agile/Management books
Tools for practitioners
www.p-a-m.org

4. Why Stakeholder Management?
Some truisms
Organisations are nurtured by various interests,
needs and actions.
Organisations consist of dynamic relationships
that are driven by power.
Projects are a natural part of this network of
power relationships.
Project managers need specific strategies for
dealing with stakeholders and their networks.

5. And the reality?
Some observations
Project managers do not recognize that their projects ignite
change – and that resistance is a natural part of change.
Project managers drive change without acknowledging
specific interests.
Project managers have no clear picture of who is
affected by their work or who influences this work.
Project managers know their stakeholders but are reluctant to
involve them in their projects.
Project managers do not know how to professionally
involve their stakeholders.

6. A Case Study
Introduction of a new software for credit management
Austrian bank, 43 branches, over 200 local affiliates,
over 2000 users
Introduction of high political interest, a lot of debates
about why, how, when where, a series of specific
change requests during the introduction process
A broad variety of important stakeholders
„Task Force“ with 1 project manager
& 12 project team members with different
professional background (finance, IT, OD)
1 external facilitator/consultant

7. How did we proceed?
Good practices of stakeholder management
Devote time for professional team building
Create a joint map of project stakeholders
Facilitate open discussion about distinct positions
and forces to be considered
Define specific action points for all stakeholders
Involve all team members in the implementation of
defined action points
Continuous review and learning of actions

8. How to create a
map of your stakeholders

9. Brainstorm all individuals
and groups who „have a
stake“ in our project (i.e.
who are influencing this
project or are affected by
its process and/or
outcome)

10. Write the name of your
stakeholder on pin-cards of
different size according to
their relative power within
the organisation (rule of
thumb: the bigger the power
the bigger the pin-card)

11. Link each
stakeholder with
the project´s
mission (center)
as well as with
the other
stakeholders. The
closer the
stakeholder are
positioned to the
center, the more
intense the
interaction on a
daily basis. Try
out different
versions of
relationships.

12. Lines of different color
and width signify the
assumed amount of work
(blue) and power (red)
influencing the project.
Find out more about
possible variations of
your stakeholder map on
http://www.loop-beratung.at/fileadmin/images/Map_Stakeholder_Mana

13. Observations & Conclusions
Directors of bank branches („Geschäftsleiter“) are key players
of a successful introduction – hence, professional contracting,
reporting and feedback is essential
Regular marketing activities adressing the needs and stakes of
managers and management boards is important
Set aside resources for internal feedback loops and
learning (time as well as budget)
Retrospectives on a quarterly basis, facilitated
by the external consultant to ensure outside-
the-box-thinking
Define how and when to evaluate pilot bank
branches

14. What team members said about the benefits
of their stakeholder management strategy
“The map allowed for overview and gave us a tool to better
orient ourselves.“
“Creating a joint map is an intense team building process. It
needs a lot of open-minded sharing and trustful communication.“
“We made good use of our tacit knowledge as well as our
know-how about the organisation and its key players.“
“It takes time to develop a strategy and continuously learn from
its pracitcal implementation. Nevertheless, this investment pays
of on a short term and on a long term perspective.“
“A lot of helpful impulses to improve our future project
management.“