This paper by R. Max Wideman was first published as part of Chapter 17 in A Field Guide to Project Management, 2nd Edition, edited by David I. Cleland and published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New Jersey, 2004.
The original paper has received minor updates and is published here August 2015.
Introduction | Who Are the Stakeholders? | Internal Projects
Hidden Stakeholders | Keeping Internal Stakeholders on Your Side
External Projects | How to Identify Public Stakeholders

Who Are the Stakeholders?

Stakeholders can be many and various and called by different names. For example:

  • Project owner, client, customer, or financial source;
  • Project sponsor or director;
  • Program manager, project manager, leader, or coordinator;
  • Project team, group, or workforce;
  • The project's users;
  • Authorities having jurisdiction;
  • Professional and business groups;
  • The public, tax payers;
  • The media;
  • Special-interest groups.

Networking with these stakeholders occurs under two very different types of conditions. The first condition is if the project is undertaken entirely within the sponsoring organization, i.e. internally, usually for its own internal purposes. The second is if the project is undertaken for an outside client and involves some form of legal contract or agreement. We will discuss each in turn.

Introduction  Introduction
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