What is a Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix?

Project management is an art and this art involves the intricacies of understanding personalities, behaviors, and activities to manage them effectively. At the outset, this may seem to be a very simple and plainly stated sentence but managing stakeholders who may not fall within the purview of the project, or even if they do fall within the immediate purview, managing their priorities and schedules may be a bigger challenge to coordinate. 

No project is ever a one-person show; it involves bringing multiple minds and hands onto a single page, and the sphere just gets larger with programs and portfolios. In the wake of this challenge are some effective techniques that help the project manager overcome this limitation. In today’s article, let us look at one such simple yet powerful project management technique known as the “stakeholder engagement assessment matrix” to understand its role and importance in the world of project management. 

What is the Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix?

A stakeholder engagement assessment matrix is a sovereign tool to help the project manager keep a record of and track the involvement of stakeholders in the project. It is a visual tool that the project manager updates from time to time to understand how to engage stakeholders effectively and seal gaps to avoid project challenges. 

The objective of the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix pmp is basically to gauge the current level of stakeholder involvement, categorize or group stakeholders, and derive methodologies to drive them to the desired level of engagement and involvement. I am sure this sounds pretty theoretical and technical, but isn't that what a lot of project management is? Worry not and enroll for the Project Management certification course from KnowledgeHut and explore project management with all its nitty-gritty under the supervision of the experts.

In simple terms, the engagement assessment matrix is built to help the project manager understand and assess the stakeholders by knowing attributes about them such as:

• Their Level of authority
• Interest in the project
• Impacting functions
• Roles and accountabilities they perform

Hence, the Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix is a project manager's compass for effective stakeholder involvement. It simplifies the complex landscape of stakeholder attributes, ensuring a smoother path to project success.

Categories of Stakeholder

By their level of interest and influence, stakeholders are usually classified on the following scale:

• Unaware (or Ignorant): Stakeholders in this category are mostly unaware or act as unaware or ignorant of the project problems and show little to no concern for issues or challenges faced.
• Resistant (or Unwilling): Some stakeholders are always resistant or unwilling to change and try to create impediments in process improvements. Such stakeholders are difficult to convince/change.
• Neutral (or Indifferent): Stakeholders in this category are often aware but they neither support nor resent the project changes/challenges thereby assuming a neutral or indifferent role in the project. 
• Supportive (or Responsive): Some stakeholders are always responsive to support and encourage decisions and solve project problems. 
• Leading (or Principal): Some stakeholders lead the project to set an example for the team and encourage the project management function in process improvements and project planning/execution. 

So as you may have noted, the objective of any project management practice is to drive stakeholder engagement from unaware or ignorant to principal or leading to facilitate project success and organization flourishment. I am sure you are now wondering how to create an effective and robust pmp stakeholder engagement assessment matrix - let's deep dive into the next section.

How to Create a Stakeholder Engagement Matrix?

Creating a Stakeholder Engagement Matrix is a fundamental process in project management that helps project managers understand and manage the relationships with various stakeholders. In this section, we'll outline the steps involved in building a Stakeholder Engagement Matrix.

• Project Stakeholders Identification: The first step in creating a stakeholder engagement assessment matrix example is to identify stakeholders to list all of them. Stakeholders may be individual persons or certain groups whose names may be required to be included in the stakeholder register to determine the next steps.
• Assessment of Stakeholder's Interests: Once the stakeholders have been identified, the next step is to assess their interests, engagement levels, power, and interest in the project. This is the important step where the stakeholder mapping and engagement analysis is performed to fill in the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix template. 
• Communication Planning: Once the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix template is created with the list of stakeholders and their attributes are mapped, the communication plan is created to send out /perform the required communications with stakeholders to specify the frequency, mode, purpose, and plan for the project communications.
• Building the Matrix and Engaging Stakeholder: This is the final step where the created matrix will be constantly reviewed to move stakeholders from the C i.e. Current level of engagement to the D i.e. Desired level of engagement. From here, the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix PMI will be constantly updated by the team to ensure the latest and most fruitful information in managing stakeholder engagement.

Mastering the art of creating a Stakeholder Engagement Matrix is pivotal for project success. It not only facilitates efficient communication but also paves the way for effective stakeholder management. As you delve deeper into the world of stakeholder engagement, the next section will explore the way to determine stakeholder engagement level. 

How to Determine Stakeholder Engagement Level?

Stakeholder engagement techniques such as the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix PMI are the visual indicators of the involvement and engagement levels of stakeholders in the project. To determine the appropriate level of engagement of any stakeholder, the project manager needs to take into account their idiosyncrasies, power, needs, interests, and influence they can have on the project. There are several models or techniques project managers usually use to gauge stakeholder interests and involvement in the project.

1. Power-Interest Grid
2. Power-influence Grid
3. Influence-Impact Grid
4. Stakeholder multicriteria
5. Stakeholder cube or the salience model
6. Project Stakeholder register or Organization OPA’s

The above list is not necessarily all-encompassing as different situations demand different ways of managing stakeholders. Learn these and a lot more concepts of project management in the world-renowned Project Management Professional certification – take up our proven and tested game changer PMP certification training course.

Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix Template

Here is a classic template that shows how a stakeholder engagement assessment matrix can be built and updated. 

Here is another template that shows the stakeholder classification and engagement assessment according to the hierarchy and attributes of each stakeholder.

Uses of Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix

As we all know very well, stakeholders are an important part of any project and any challenges in stakeholder identification, communications or activities can cause major disruptions and havoc in the project. The stakeholder engagement assessment matrix is a data representation technique designed to avoid this situation whereby the project manager does not miss to include the critical pieces of the puzzle. The stakeholder engagement assessment matrix finds its use in:

• Planning: Planning involves looking at the stakeholder matrix to determine what kind of communications will be done and how will the stakeholders be managed in the project and accordingly updating the stakeholder engagement plan.
• Monitoring: Project monitoring involves determining steps to be performed when there is a discovery of a new stakeholder whether the planned activities are being performed as expected or if are there any deviations and if yes, how can they be handled without causing any challenges? 
• Finding Gaps between Actual and Desired Engagement Levels: Stakeholders identified do not have the same level of engagement across the project duration and that is the primary reason why the stakeholder engagement assessment matrix needs to be constantly reviewed to ensure the gaps between the current level of engagement and desired level of engagement are minimized as early as possible to avoid challenges.

In essence, the Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix serves as a versatile tool that not only aids in planning and monitoring but is crucial for bridging the engagement gaps and maintaining project harmony throughout its lifecycle.

Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix Examples

Here is a simple example of how a basic stakeholder can be built for the assessment of the engagement level of stakeholders.

Stakeholder	Unaware	Resistant	Neutral	Supportive	Leading
Project Sponsor					C D
Project Manager					C D
Procurement Manager		C		D
Support Executive	C			D
Operations Manager			C	D
Stationary Vendor	C			D

Learn how to build a robust stakeholder matrix to improve stakeholder engagement and manage projects effectively; undergo the best PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner certification to build a strong foundational framework and project management expertise.

Benefits of Stakeholders Engagement Assessment Matrix

The Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix is more than just a tool; it's a key to unlocking the potential of successful project management. Assessing and managing stakeholder engagement, it serves as a crucial asset for project managers in achieving their objectives while fostering a collaborative environment. Let’s read about its benefits in this section: 

• Encourages Stakeholder Participation: Having a thorough and up-to-date stakeholder engagement assessment matrix helps the project manager create an appropriate stakeholder engagement plan to identify gaps while monitoring engagement levels of stakeholders and helps seal those gaps early before they turn into red flags or project impediments. It also encourages stakeholders to be more responsible and accountable towards their contributions.
• Creates Awareness: The stakeholder matrix helps create or raise awareness on the involvement and contribution of stakeholders towards project objectives and organization strategies thereby bringing all parties on the same page in accomplishing the objectives.
• Keeps the Project Ahead: The keen efforts of the project manager in constantly assessing the current levels of engagement and moving to the desired levels stimulates project progress and keeps stakeholders motivated which only results in economies, faster execution, and smooth functioning of the project with minimal conflicts or resistance.
• Improves Project Performance: As outlined above, engaged stakeholders ensure timely feedback and minimal changes/deviations thereby lending a hand to optimize overall project performance and delivery.

With this tool in hand, project managers can navigate the complexities of stakeholder engagement with confidence, ultimately leading to more successful and harmonious project outcomes.

Challenges of Stakeholder Engagement Assessment

Stakeholder engagement is a critical aspect of project management, but it's not without its challenges. To effectively navigate the complex landscape of stakeholder dynamics, project managers must be aware of and address these obstacles. In this section, we'll explore the challenges that can arise in stakeholder engagement assessments and strategies to overcome them.

• Inadequate Management Skills: Focusing too much on constantly updating and keeping track of the changing stakeholder dynamics can overwhelm the project manager and result in a loss of focus or missing other critical areas of project management.
  To avoid this, the expectation setting with stakeholders and communication management needs to be strengthened to have required fallback measures.
• Poor Confidentiality: As stakeholder engagement levels and involvement may keep changing this may result in conflicts between active stakeholders when the engagement levels change thereby leading to unwanted situations of reconciliation.
  To avoid this, the project manager can mask the levels of engagement to maintain the required confidentiality and avoid demotivation among stakeholders who may have been occupied with different priorities in the interim.
• Barriers to Effective Communication: Moving from current to desired levels of engagement sounds very simple but is not as easy because when it comes to working with different stakeholders, no one size fits all and the project manager needs to be adaptive in their approach.
  To avoid this situation, the project manager needs to adapt to different stakeholders with different approaches without getting overwhelmed and must pay the right attention to the feedback and inputs from stakeholders.

So as you have now understood, every technique just like any other project management tools or techniques, has its own pros and cons; the project manager needs to tread a thin line to effectively derive best practices and create an optimal stakeholder engagement plan. I bet this sounds easy but is jittery, challenging yet achievable. Avoid the common traps and anti-patterns of project management – explore KnowledgeHut's best Project Management courses today and get yourself trained and certified by industry experts.

Conclusion

Stakeholder management is one of the most demanding and determinative areas of project management which involves dealing with stakeholders who have varying levels of power, influence, and interest in the project. Maneuvering the project with such changing dynamics is often intricate and involves tactical as well as strategic planning. 

The stakeholder engagement assessment matrix is a persuasive stakeholder analytical technique that helps determine the current stakeholder engagement level to equip the project manager with valuable insights to move to their desired engagement levels. It helps assess the varying engagement levels and also draws specific strategies to keep them motivated and focused to drive projects towards successful completion of defined objectives and achieve outlined benefits.