Introduction

Managing stakeholders is one of the most difficult, demanding, and time consuming aspects of any communication or information design project. We estimate that dealing with the many interests that converge on a design project takes about 50% of the project effort, and it is the source of the greatest risk to achieving a productive project outcome.

We have, therefore, put a lot of research effort and analysis into finding the best ways of managing stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle. We have investigated the field of stakeholder management, tested the methods we have developed in live projects, and refined the methods so that they minimise the risk of project failure.

In this guide we give you a step by step process for managing stakeholders at the all important scoping stage of a project.