Stakeholders are individual and groups who are affected by or have influence over your initiative. Every project needs a careful assessment of stakeholders in order to understand who cares about it, how they can affect it, and how they will be impacted by it.

Structured examination of who cares. Stakeholder analyses are structured examinations of the relationships between a proposed project and key players in the environment. These analyses are ways of answering the question, "Who cares about this project and why?" Anyone who has an interest (a "stake") is considered a stakeholder. Stakeholders can be examined in terms of their roles, degree of support for the initiative, influence over decisions or resources, or the ways in which the project will affect them in both positive and negative ways. A variety of tools can be used for this analysis -- two (positioning charts and partisan analysis) are described in the sections below.

Refining project scope. The results of a stakeholder analysis may expand or reduce the scope of a project design and strategy. Often planners have a good understanding of internal stakeholders, but less appreciation for the needs and influence of external ones. Stakeholder analysis give them information to take all important stakeholders into account.

Refining service objective and strategic framework. A stakeholder analysis tests the usability of the service objective and strategic framework that has been set by the group. Because a service objective focuses on a single user or beneficiary, planners often find a stakeholder analysis reveals additional users (with different needs) and therefore requires additional service objectives for a complete understanding of the project.

Examining impacts in order to design a better plan. There are many stakeholders in the environment of a government program, and most information systems have multiple features or products that will affect stakeholders in different ways. Some will see increased access to services, or better quality service. Others may experience higher costs or more competition for scarce resources. This analysis can help you anticipate these effects before a full-blown project gets underway.

Expanding understanding of the environment. Most organizations are better at understanding internal dynamics than external ones. The stakeholder analysis forces you to look outside your organizational boundaries to estimate the impacts and outcomes of a new initiative.

Predicting potential results. The stakeholder analysis requires you to be specific about how various elements of a proposal will affect stakeholder groups. It helps you move from very general descriptions to more specific and measurable ones.

Identifying high-priority features and stakeholders. Once you understand the different ways the proposal will affect different stakeholders, you should be able to see which areas need priority attention. You should also be able to identify measures of how your initiative will impact different stakeholders and estimate the magnitude of those effects.

Assumptions required. The analysis requires assumptions about causal relationships and processes. Since you have imperfect data, make educated guesses about causes and influences. Keep testing these assumptions as your project proceeds.

Mitchell, R., B. Agle, and D. Wood (1997) "Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience. Defining the principle of who and what really counts," Academy of Management Review, vol. 22, pp. 853-866.

Tennert, J. and A. Schroeder (1999) "Stakeholder analysis," presented at 60th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Public Administration, Orlando, FL

The Management Sciences for Health and UNICEF have a guide on how to conduct a basic stakeholder analysis. http://erc.msh.org/quality/ittools/itstkan.cfm . [Retrieved on May 27, 2003.]

The UK Department for International Development has an extensive guide to doing a Stakeholder Analysis at http://www.dfid.gov.uk/foi/tools/chapter_02.htm . [Retrieved on May 27, 2003.]