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Searching for Stakeholders: A Vital Key to Success
Nowhere more than in the requirements do the interests of all project stakeholders intersect. Here’s how to identify and evaluate them.
Consultant and author Tim Lister defines project success as “meeting the set of all requirements and constraints held as expectations by key stakeholders.” Every team, whether building a software solution or some other product, must identify its stakeholders and engage with them to understand those requirements and constraints, as well as their priorities and other concerns.
What’s a Stakeholder?
A stakeholder is any individual or group that is actively involved in a project, is affected by the project, or can influence the project’s direction. The relationships between stakeholders and the project span a broad spectrum. Some stakeholders simply have the project outcome imposed on them. Others profoundly shape the requirements, and there will be someone who could change the project’s direction or even terminate it.
Stakeholders can be internal to the project team, internal to the developing organization, or external to the organization. Figure 1 shows some typical stakeholder communities that most software teams should consider. There could be…
