There are many different types of stakeholders to any process. However, not all stakeholders are created equal—they vary in power, legitimacy, and urgency. They each pull different weights. Regardless of this fact, each of them needs to be considered in your analysis. If your focus is too narrow, or you only focus on the most powerful stakeholders, other important stakeholders can and will be overlooked. One way to mitigate this is by considering the workflow process as a way to identify potential stakeholders.

Involvement of those stakeholders can then take many forms—from active engagement to keeping them informed of your progress. This not only helps to ensure a well-informed design, but also mitigates many of the barriers identified by Testbed team members, such as lack of understanding and cooperation among participating departments. A technical staff member working for a medium agency said, “So if you can get everyone, if you can get the right people in ... if you can sell them on what the concept is, we’re going to get support all the way through. And I think by doing that, obviously by identifying your stakeholders, having your stakeholders involved to the point where they’re very receptive to this move, it benefits everybody.”