Case study for stakeholder engagement and communication. LMN Back office Project. Cover note

Transcription

1 LMN communication case study Case study for stakeholder engagement and communication LMN Back office Project Prepared by: Ladder consulting services Cover note This document contains a stakeholder engagement and communication requirements as a case study for the e-learning course being developed by Ladder Consultancy Services. This document is meant for internal circulation within Aricent only and may not be distributed outside Aricent without prior consent of Ladder Consultancy Services. This document refers to the following other documents: 1. TravelPortalCaseStudyMainDocument.doc This is the proposal and contains the specification for the LMN back office project. 2. TravelPortalCaseStudySupplement.doc This document contains the technical approach and details. The case study differs from a real life project in the following way: 1. This is a case study for project management lessons. Hence, certain pre-work to be done in order to come up with stakeholder management plan is also included in this case study. 2. Several parts of the document contains teaching notes in boxes and these are only specific to the case study and not a part of a template of a real-life Risk management plan document. And depending on the organization s template, a stakeholder management plan, also called a stakeholder register in PMI parlance, may be a separate document or can be a part of project plan document.

2 LMN communication case study TABLE OF CONTENT 1.0 OVERVIEW STAKEHOLDER IDENTIFICATION STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT MATRIX COMMUNICATION REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS... 8

3 LMN communication case study 1.0 Overview This document contains a case study of stakeholder management for the LMN project. The case study mainly illustrates: Identification of stakeholders Classification of stakeholders Communication requirements analysis Communication formats 2.0 identification In order to identify the stakeholders, one needs to ask the questions such as Who gets benefited by the project? Who impacts the project? Who uses the end product of the project? Who pays for the project? Who are the chief decision makers of the project? What compliances are required of the project (What standards and guidelines are to be followed)? The questions must be asked keeping in reference the organization structure of the project owner organization. In this case, the project team asked LMN who provided the details of their organization structure: CEO Ralph COO Tim CIO Jason BUHeads CFO Clarke HR Chief Dyson IT sys Admin John LMN Back office project manager, Sally Other project managers

4 LMN communication case study 2.1 stakeholder analysis Having obtained the organization structure, the next step is to understand who can significantly impact the project and are impacted by the project and analyze their power and interest to classify them accordingly. The following table illustrates a sample classification. It should be noted that the illustration of the method is more important in this case study than the final result. There could be alternate view points about classification of some stakeholders, but a finer, hair-splitting discussion should be avoided here and focus should be on the broader aspect of the methodology. designation name contact details Power Interest Remarks 1 CIO Ralph High High He is the sponsor of the project as it is based on the budget for CIO s cost centre that the back office application is being developed. Understand vision and priorities. Keep in loop for all important project decisions. 2 Project Manager Sally High High Most important stakeholder to be carried along and kept

5 LMN communication case study designation name contact details Power Interest Remarks satisfied. To be involved on a very regular basis. 3 HR chief Dyson Low Low Will not have much say in scope, cost or schedule of the project and nor is impacted significantly. But can be kept under watch because HR policies may impact structure of operations team and hence operations. This may have impact on some of the features of the application accordingly. 4 COO Tim Can be ignored and not considered as a stakeholder at all. Mentioned here for the case study to highlight an example of a person considered and ignored 5 IT sys admin John High Low Will not be interested in the scope and cost of the project but will require compliance of end deliverables to production environment. Important to understand compliance requirements and comply. 6 BU Heads Each individual. High Low Will have a say on scope, and will approve the features of the application and hence powerful. But, as long as the features (scope) of the application meet their business requirements, they will not be interested in cost, schedule and other details. Their support will be essential because their teams of copywriters and data entry staff have to spend time with the IT team to spell out the exact features of the application that they require. 7 BU Each Low Low The marketing people may use

6 LMN communication case study designation name contact details Power Interest Remarks marketing individual. product information available on the site for their marketing. They may induce some lowpriority requirements and have to be kept on watch. 8 Sales heads They border on low/low stakeholders, but can be ignored and considered irrelevant for this project. 9 BU Operations heads 10 Copy writers 11 Data entry staff Each BU operations head Low Low They have to ensure the availability of copy writers and others for providing requirements and reviewing deliverables and to that extent their co-operation is required. As a group High Low While each individual in this role may not have a significant say on the project, as a group, they influence the requirements as they are the business users of the application. Hence, they have a high power, but may not be interested in the day-to-day execution details of the project. They must be consulted for requirements and these requirements have to be complied with. As a group High Low While each individual in this role may not have a significant say on the project, as a group, they influence the requirements as they are the business users of the application. Hence, they have a high power, but may not be interested in the day-to-day execution details of the project. They must be consulted for requirements and these requirements have to be

7 LMN communication case study designation 12 Customer support executives name contact details Power Interest Remarks complied with. As a group High Low While each individual in this role may not have a significant say on the project, as a group, they influence the requirements as they are the business users of the application. Hence, they have a high power, but may not be interested in the day-to-day execution details of the project. They must be consulted for requirements and these requirements have to be complied with. 2.2 engagement matrix Having analyzed the stakeholders, the next step is to understand and analyze the engagement levels and mark the desired levels of engagement. For the purpose of case study, the current level of engagement marked are assumed and in a live project, the current level has to be determined based on the actual stakeholder. The letter C denotes the current level of engagement of the stakeholder and D denotes the desired level. Please note that if D is marked in either Neutral or Supportive columns, that level indicates the minimum desired level and not the maximum. For instance, if BU heads have Neutral as the desired level of engagement, it implies that the project manager should limit the stakeholder management efforts for BU heads to the extent of bringing them up to Neutral level at least. However, if any of them is already in a higher level, then that status should not be disturbed. Their level should not be brought down to Neutral level. name Resistive Unaware Neutral Supportive Leading Ralph, CIO C D Sally, Project C, D manager Copy writers C D Data entry staff C D Customer support C D executives BU Heads C D

8 LMN communication case study All others D Having arrived at the desired level of engagement of the stakeholders, the project manager can use communication and influencing skills accordingly. A very important question to ask at this juncture is this whose responsibility is it to ensure the desired engagement level of the stakeholders? The Aricent project manager s or Sally, the project manager at LMN? The answer depends on the type of outsourcing. In tactically outsourced projects, the vendors (such as Aricent) are only responsible for delivery and are accountable to the project manager for delivery. And stakeholders within the customer s organization have to be engaged by the PM in the customer organization. However, in strategically outsourced projects and comprehensive outsourcing projects, the vendors carry the responsibility of managing stakeholders within the customer organization also. 3 Communication requirement analysis For the purpose of illustration, this case study assumes that Aricent shares the responsibility of engaging the stakeholders. Given this responsibility, the next step is to analyse the communication requirements and come up with a communications plan. Following table is an example communication plan (The rows containing Project name and prepared by will be required if this communication plan is maintained as a separate document other than the main project plan. Else, the table can start from the 3 rd row). Project Name: LMN Back office Prepared by: Project manager Date: Key s Project schedule Minutes of weekly meetings Weekly status reports Change request summary Other project changes User interfaces Ralph, CIO Yes to be cc d Executive summary only No Important changes No Sally, LMN PM Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

9 LMN communication case study BU Heads No No No No Relevant only Yes Project Team Members Copy writers Data entry Suppliers Customer support executives Yes Yes Yes Relevant only Relevant only No No No Relevant only No Yes No No No Relevant only No Yes No No No No No Yes No No No Relevant only No Yes Yes