You’re managing a project with multiple stakeholders. How can you mitigate risks and ensure success?

Start your stakeholder identification by extending your search from the core team and SMEs to external parties like suppliers, regulators, and community groups that might be affected by the project. Use tools like brainstorming, stakeholder analysis matrices, and interviews to ensure you have a comprehensive list. You'll next want to analyze their potential impact, interest, and influence regarding the project and utilize them in engagement planning. You'll do a comprehensive risk assessment, prioritize requirements, and regularly review and adjust your approach with feedback mechanisms.

Démarrer le projet par la complétion d'une charte de projet est toujours gagnant. Cette charte de projet est un document à travailler en groupe afin d'identifier les parties prenantes, leurs attentes, leurs rôles, leurs responsabilités. Elle documente l'objectif commun et clarifie la cadence de rétroaction interne. Pour qu'elle atteigne son plein potentiel, elle doit être approuvée les parties prenantes, être accessibles en tout temps par les personnes concernées et ses informations doivent être utilisées à divers moment clés : 1) l'objectif commun est répété régulièrement tel qu'il a été écrit dans la charte de projet, 2) les rôles et responsabilités sont consultés au moment de lancer de nouvelles phases du projet.

Defining the scope and objectives clearly at the beginning of a project is crucial for mitigating risks and ensuring its success, especially when multiple stakeholders are involved. A well-defined scope and objectives includes a clear vision and direction, stakeholder alignment, effective planning, risk identification/mitigation, quality control, communication, change management, and finally prioritization or work activitiies.

Defining the desired outcome or result of the project should come first. This will inform your stakeholder and risk mapping and management workstreams.

Conducting a project risk assessment should result in key downside and upside risks being identified. As the PM you may well need to delegate or assign resource to mitigating downside risk and maximising upside (opportunity) risk. You will also need to agree with the project owner/lead what their risk appetite and tolerance is. By that I mean it is extremely rare to be able to fully mitigate all project risks. Residual risk will remain - even after action has been taken - and you will need to confirm with the project owners what is an acceptable level of residual risk.

Managing risks proactively is essential in ensuring the success of a project, especially when multiple stakeholders are involved. A comprehensive risk management process helps in identifying potential problems before they occur, allowing for the implementation of strategies to mitigate these risks.

When risks identified are set a level of strongest risk that possibly could happen ensure you have a plan in place to combat risks at early stage communicate the risks to all that need to know and monitor the plan and actions to illeminate the risks transpiring and growing out of control assess the effectiveness of the plan

Effectively managing projects with multiple stakeholders involves tailored communication to meet their needs, building trust through transparency, addressing conflicts promptly, and establishing feedback mechanisms for continuous improvement and engagement. By planning, executing, and evaluating communication activities while using tools like communication plans and feedback loops, you can enhance stakeholder relationships and project outcomes.

Effective communication is arguably the most important aspect of successful project management, especially in projects with multiple stakeholders. It plays a crucial role in mitigating risks and ensuring that the project meets its objectives. Clear and concise messaging is key as well as open 360-degree dialogue. Multiple communication channels must be leveraged at all time to manage expectations and excel in the project.

Monitoring and reporting progress are critical components of successful project management, especially in projects with multiple stakeholders. These processes enable you to identify and address issues promptly, adjust project plans as needed, and ensure transparency and accountability.

We often forget to celebrate successes. People usually start moving off the project team before the final deliverable is complete. I loved the fact that I got invited back to witness a significant milestone on a project after I had left the organisation. This shows appreciation for all involved but importantly getting everyone together allowed people to talk about the trials and tribulations, the risks that materialised and share these stories with each other so that they reduce the likelihood of recurrence.