PMP - Chap. 13

A project has been through an environmental study that shows it has no negative impacts on the watershed. Nevertheless, an environmental group is objecting to the project, saying that it will have a negative impact. What is the first thing the project manager should do?

Add the environmental group to the stakeholder register.; Stakeholders are an individual, group, or organization who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project. Since the group perceives itself to be affected, it is a stakeholder regardless of the study results. In this case, the stakeholder needs to be influenced to accept the study results to minimize the damage they could do to the project or others' perceptions of the project.

Project stakeholders must be actively engaged in projects experiencing high levels of change. What method can a project utilize to facilitate timely decision making?

Allow team members to engage directly with stakeholders; Projects experiencing a high degree of change require active engagement and participation with project stakeholders. To facilitate timely, productive discussion and decision making, adaptive teams engage with stakeholders directly rather than going through layers of management.

Office politics requires engaging some stakeholders and actively involving them in the project despite the project manager's opinion that they are not affected or needed. How would this be documented in the stakeholder management plan?

As an enterprise environmental factor (EEF); EEF inputs to Plan Stakeholder Engagement include organizational culture, structure, and political climate.

At what point during a project to build a wastewater treatment facility would an environmental interest group have a leading role?

At no point; An environmental interest group would likely never have an active role in such a project. Its concerns would be listened to so that it could hopefully be a neutral or supportive stakeholder.

A toy company invites stakeholders to engage in the design and development phase of a project. Over the course of the project, the stakeholders are kept in the loop and given considerable access and input. This is an example of which specific agile approach?

Co-creation; Often the client, user, and developer exchange information in a dynamic co-creative process that leads to more stakeholder involvement and higher satisfaction. Regular interactions with the stakeholder community throughout the project mitigate risk, build trust, and support adjustments earlier in the project cycle, thus reducing costs and increasing the likelihood of success for the project.

What is an example of a situation that would tend to generate stakeholder satisfaction?

Communicate bad news as soon as possible.; The surest way to produce a dissatisfied stakeholder is to allow a gap to exist between their expectations and the project's actual results. Communicating bad news early helps reset expectations; communicating that same news after the fact will create a harmful expectations gap.

You are developing a stakeholder engagement assessment matrix. One particular major stakeholder group is critical to your project's success. You have determined that this stakeholder group is currently resistant to your change, but you need them to be supportive. You have developed a communications and stakeholder engagement plan you feel will accomplish this. What other actions should you plan?

Develop one or more items in your risk plan. Monitor progress in the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix to determine your achieving their support. Initiate risk mitigation actions as necessary to achieve your required result; Since this stakeholder group's perception of your project is currently negative, you have many communications and stakeholder engagement actions available to you. There is no guarantee that any or all will be successful. If not, and other actions are prudent, the additional actions should already be identified and accountable persons named so that action can be initiated quickly. This planning takes place as risk management.

What is the best time to involve the performing organization's senior management in a leading role?

During Initiating; Senior management often has a leading role during Initiating to get the charter approved and obstacles removed but may then best serve as supportive champions with little or no active role.

When should the biggest effort be made to influence stakeholders to fulfill their desired level of engagement?

Early in the project, since their impact and influence lessens over the project life cycle; Note that the sooner in a project that gaps between current and desired engagement can be closed the better, because the ability for stakeholders to impact/influence the project lessens steadily as the project progresses and more choices are made and activities completed.

What would be a good use for an influence/impact grid?

Identifying stakeholders to be managed closely even though they don't rank high on a power/interest grid; A power/interest grid tracks positional authority versus ability to make changes to the project (or degree of project impact on the person). A person who has a low job position may still have high influence and impact on the project, and this analysis can highlight these persons. An example would be a team member who everyone looks to for leadership even though the person is a peer.

What part of a stakeholder register might need to be kept confidential?

Influence assessment; An influence assessment may describe a potential for some stakeholders to exert a negative influence if nothing is done to manage the situation. This information is best kept confidential.

What stakeholder attribute needs to be reduced when a subject matter expert is unsuccessfully trying to change parts of the project for which he or she doesn't have any expertise?

Influence; Influence is the stakeholder's active involvement in the project. While impact measures ability to make changes, influence measures the will and persistence to execute changes. In this case, the stakeholder is not succeeding in making these changes, so he/she has little impact, but the effort he/she is expending could be redirected to other parts of the project.

What Manage Stakeholder Engagement tool or technique can keep stakeholder issues from remaining unresolved for unacceptable amounts of time?

Information management systems; The project manager can use information management systems to ensure that stakeholder issues are resolved in a timely manner, that all communications occur, and that all are useful and appealing to the recipient.

What is an excellent source for finding less obvious but needed stakeholders for a project?

Interview obvious stakeholders.; The project manager can interview these key stakeholders and have them identify other potential stakeholders.

A stakeholder says that a team member has been belligerent with him and wants to work with someone else. So far this hasn't happened. Where would the project manager find out who is dealing with this?

Issue log; An issue log lists all stakeholder issues and has categories for who submitted the issue, its resolution status (e.g., change request submitted), and who is assigned to address the issue.

A project manager invites a wider range of experts and team leads to the initial project meeting than she believes is truly needed. If optional invitees can decline the invitation, what consequences could this decision have?

It can reduce unknown risks by reducing the number of unaware stakeholders; Unaware stakeholders might become aware at the wrong time and have unmanaged expectations or could be missed as a source of requirements or support. Inviting more people to the initial project meeting than needed can help reveal people who believe they will be affected. Persons who do not feel they would be affected can decline the invitation. Inviting more people will not make the meeting more conducive to decision making, so such a meeting would be best used as a way to introduce people to the project.

What type of stakeholder would be best to involve in a leading role only during the Initiating and Closing Process Groups of a project that will provide analytical services to a customer?

Legal department; The legal department would be involved most heavily during Initiating and Closing to ensure that the agreement with the customer is in the organization's best interest, and during Closing legal can verify that all terms and conditions of both parties were honored. This department would also be involved during Executing if procurement contracts were needed, but this is not the case on this project.

According to a power/interest grid, what level of communication and relationship building does a customer or sponsor usually require?

Manage closely.; The group with high power and high interest is in the "Manage closely" quadrant. These stakeholders need the most communication and relationship building.

What should a project manager do when a team member and an external stakeholder are starting to show hostility toward one another?

Manage the team member and make suggestions to the stakeholder; This strategy often requires fine-tuning how you and your team interact, since you often cannot force other stakeholders to improve their own interactions.

What is an activity that is done as part of the Manage Stakeholder Engagement process?

Managing expectations; Manage Stakeholder Engagement is the process of communicating and working with stakeholders to meet their needs/expectations, address issues as they occur, and foster appropriate stakeholder engagement in project activities throughout the project life cycle.

What should be done with stakeholders who have low power and low interest in the project?

Monitor them.; Stakeholders with both low power and low interest fall in the "Monitor" quadrant of the power/interest grid. Project managers keep an eye on these stakeholders to ensure that they are not creating resistance or increasing project risks.

What do the stakeholder engagement plan and the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix have in common?

Neither should be shared among the project team in their entirety.; The stakeholder engagement assessment matrix and the stakeholder engagement plan are both highly confidential.

What can a project manager use like a checklist to ensure that no important stakeholder group is overlooked?

Organizational process assets (OPAs); Project managers also refer to stakeholder registers from similar projects in the past (i.e., OPAs) to double-check that no important stakeholder is overlooked.

What information for input to the stakeholder register might not be available until during the Executing Process Group because these stakeholders have yet to be selected?

Outputs from Conduct Procurements; Outputs from Conduct Procurements become inputs to Identify Stakeholders. Acquire Project Team does not generate outputs that go to Identify Stakeholders.

The process of developing strategies to engage stakeholders is called...

Plan Stakeholder Engagement.; Plan Stakeholder Engagement is the process of developing appropriate management strategies to effectively engage stakeholders throughout the project life cycle, based on the analysis of their needs, interests, and potential impact on project success.

What sort of graph could you create to categorize stakeholders by the relative amount of deference one needs to pay to them versus their level of active involvement in the project?

Power/influence grid; Power relates in part to the amount of respect that should be present in communications, and influence relates to active involvement in the project.

A junior project team member is well respected by the rest of the team, and the project manager believes she could get the project team to move into the performing level of Tuckman's ladder. The team member is actively involved in many of the project's activities and aims to prove her expertise and make the project a success. Which attribute is this team member lowest in?

Power; Power is the authority level of the stakeholder. Note that many key stakeholders will have low power but be higher in the other attributes.

The project manager makes a presentation to a group of expert stakeholders. The group responds to it favorably, letting go of some fears and becoming project champions. What should the project manager do with this presentation during the Manage Stakeholder Engagement process?

Prepare the presentation and its impact as an OPA update.; If the project manager has developed stakeholder presentations, these may be retained and leveraged for future projects, especially if time was spent creating elements with strong visual appeal. This presentation has worked with a group of expert stakeholders, but that does not mean it will be equally useful for all stakeholders.

A stakeholder is over-involved in some Planning activities, causing conflicts with other planners. The project manager feels that this person's enthusiasm will be an asset later, when it is currently scheduled to taper off. What should the project manager do?

Progressively elaborate the stakeholder management plan.; The level, focus, or timing of engagement required from stakeholders may be changed. Therefore this plan is progressively elaborated during Planning.

Where would a team member look to find an acceptable method of reducing a department lead's resistance to a project if this team member is the department lead's subordinate?

Project management plan; The stakeholder engagement plan is where acceptable methods of influencing stakeholders would be described. It is part of the project management plan.

When conducting a stakeholder analysis, what should you do when each stakeholder tells you his or her high-level expectations and requirements?

Record them but make a note of when these may not align with the project charter; Each stakeholder will have a set of initial expectations and requirements. It is important to record these in the stakeholder register, and the charter will provide a guide as to which expectations and requirements are likely to be in or out of scope. The process of deciding which requirements are in or out occurs later in Planning, but some notes at this point are appropriate. The project charter is an input to Identify Stakeholders, so high-level requirements should already be complete at this point.

What is a good next step for a project manager following an unsuccessful attempt to transform a resistant stakeholder into a neutral stakeholder?

Review the stakeholder register to see who has a relationship with this stakeholder; The stakeholder register has information on the relationship of each stakeholder to the project and to other stakeholders. If someone has a preexisting relationship with this stakeholder, he or she may have more influence on the resistant stakeholder than other persons. Going to the sponsor or customer might be reserved as a later step.

What is the most important way to keep stakeholders satisfied when they have high power but low interest?

Set realistic expectations.; Stakeholders with high power but low interest are in the "Keep satisfied" quadrant of the power/interest grid. The important goal for this group is to set realistic expectations and deliver to those expectations so they will be supporting/leading or at least not resistant.

A stakeholder is at a leading level of engagement. She has been expecting that the project will provide a 15 percent return on investment (ROI) but learns during Executing that it will actually have a 10 percent ROI. What is the worst that could happen with this stakeholder?

She may become resistant.; If there is a gap between a stakeholder's expectations and reality that is not fixed promptly, it can cause the stakeholder to become dissatisfied. In this case, if the stakeholder feels that a 10 percent ROI is insufficient given the investment or risk, she could favor cancelling the project even though it does provide a positive return.

On a project team, who is the person who can be impacted by or can impact the project?

Stakeholder; Every project will have stakeholders who are impacted by or can impact the project in a positive or negative way.

End customers for a pharmaceutical drug have little opportunity to make changes to the project's plans or its execution, but project outcomes will surely affect them. As a group, these people are currently unaware of the project. What sort of stakeholders will potential end customers become once informed?

Stakeholders with high interest; Interest is the concern the stakeholder has regarding the project outcomes—basically, how can this project and its results help or hurt me?

You have a good list of requirements and are nearing the development of your project management plan. In discussions on this preliminary plan with one particular group of stakeholders, they ask you to cut your cost estimate by 20 percent. You expected a comment like this, because they have made similar comments on many recent projects. What should you do?

State that you have a fair estimate based on the project requirements and scope. A reduction of this amount could be achieved only by reducing the requirements and associated scope.; Stakeholder analysis coupled with OPAs (lessons learned from prior projects) have identified these stakeholders as likely to be resistant to the project cost. Even so, you should prepare a fair and unbiased estimate and present it to all stakeholders.

Which action would best lead stakeholders with influence to have an even greater positive influence on the project?

Take time to socialize with them.; The project manager's efforts in increasing influence or other attributes may take the form of leadership, management, and interpersonal skills. This could involve active listening, socializing, and analyzing needs. If you have been a good listener and have built trust in other ways, stakeholders may be more receptive to your efforts to educate, convince, or market ideas to them.

A stakeholder wants to know that his concerns have been listened to and that someone is considering them and working on their resolution one way or another. What can you do to assure this person?

Tell him about the issue log.; The issue log is used to record stakeholder issues, which are then assigned to team members for resolution. Telling stakeholders about it can show that their issues are being tracked and worked on.

The stakeholders on a project include all of the following except...

The people whose interests are not affected by the project; The person or group who provides the financial resources is the definition of the project sponsor. The people who carry out the work of the project is the definition of the project team.

What might be a good reason to encourage a stakeholder who is classified as leading to move to a supporting level?

The team needs to make decisions faster.; Leading stakeholders are supportive and actively engaged. They work to ensure that the project is a success. Supportive stakeholders may not be actively engaged. A reason to lower a stakeholder's level of engagement could be to reduce the number of persons involved in making decisions, since smaller groups of people come to consensus faster than larger groups.

How can an environmental interest group be classified and treated on a new land development project?

They have high interest and low power but should still be kept informed.; Keeping interest group stakeholders informed promotes trust building and higher levels of engagement.

What is a risk of starting with the smallest possible group of stakeholders?

Unacceptable deliverables; The process of identifying a complete set of stakeholders is vital for collecting sufficient requirements, because overlooked stakeholders might have provided important requirements and their absence creates a risk to deliverable acceptance.

What can a project manager do to make a stakeholder register dynamic and proactive?

Use "Current" and "Desired" columns for interest level; Recording not only each stakeholders' initial interest level but also a goal and a status for the interest level can show where improvements have been made and where they still need to be made. This makes the register more dynamic and proactive. Allowing stakeholders to be added any time rather than only once would also make the register more dynamic (i.e., a living document).

When should a stakeholder's needs and requirements be left unsatisfied?

When they are out of scope; The goal of stakeholder management is to satisfy all stakeholder needs and requirements that are in scope.

Your project is well into execution. You have processed several requests to change the project baselines, including requirements, scope, and schedule. In a routine project review meeting, one major stakeholder expresses surprise that she had not been informed of one particular baseline change sooner. You state that the communication of the project change request log is in accordance with the approved communication plan and...

offer to meet with her and review the plan to see if her current needs require adjustment to the communication plan.; The original communication needs of this particular stakeholder were incorporated into your plan. However, this person's needs have to some degree changed. You should meet with her and determine what her new needs are and whether this change warrants an adjustment to your plan. The mechanism for then incorporating any changes into your plan would be determined by the individual circumstances

Based on lessons learned from other project managers, you've developed a plan for building relationships with engineering SMEs involved in equipment selection and calibration. You are likely involved in ...

planning stakeholder engagement.; The key benefit of the Plan Stakeholder Engagement process is "developing a clear, actionable plan to interact with project stakeholders to support the project's interest," and creating a plan to build relationships with stakeholders is a major part of that plan.

As a project manager, you are responsible for determining whose interests should be considered during the project. This technique is called ...

stakeholder analysis.; Stakeholder analysis is a technique of systematically gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative information to determine whose interests should be taken into account throughout the project.