Managing stakeholder priorities

By taking part in the game The Bridge over the Sava River, participants will experience various aspects of managing stakeholder expectations. In the next part, they will conduct a stakeholder analysis for a selected project they are working on. They will define (or verify) goals using the SMART method. Then, they will prepare a product breakdown structure, which they will evaluate for alignment with stakeholder expectations and the project’s iron triangle.

They will practice how to manage priorities in agile projects — when it is possible to adjust them and when they need to be “frozen.” They will also learn how scope and priorities are managed in the traditional (waterfall) approach. As part of the business context transfer, they will estimate priorities for a selected initiative based on value analysis.

Knowledge

• The contractor’s perspective vs. the project recipient’s perspective
• Methods for identifying and defining stakeholder needs
• Defining the project goal and scope
• Key project constraints
• Stakeholder analysis
• SMART
• Project scope and product breakdown structure
• The iron triangle of project management
• Managing priorities in traditional and agile contexts
• Effort-benefit matrix
• MoSCoW

Results

• Participants understand the impact of stakeholders on project execution and success.
• Participants develop success factors that help align the project scope and priorities between the delivery team and the project recipients.
• Participants learn methods that help identify and define stakeholder needs.
• Participants identify factors that require an iterative approach to managing scope and priorities versus those that motivate freezing the agreements.
• Participants understand the consequences of these approaches on the key project parameters.