Stakeholder Analysis

Identify, analyze, and plan engagement strategies for project and initiative stakeholders. Based on BABOK v3 Elicitation & Collaboration knowledge area.

What is Stakeholder Analysis?

Stakeholder analysis systematically identifies all parties affected by or able to affect an initiative, assesses their interests and influence, and develops engagement strategies.

Core Deliverables

Deliverable Purpose When to Create

Stakeholder Register Comprehensive list of all stakeholders Project initiation

Power/Interest Matrix Prioritize engagement approach Analysis phase

RACI Matrix Clarify roles and responsibilities Planning phase

Communication Plan Structured engagement strategy Planning phase

Workflow

Phase 1: Stakeholder Identification

Step 1: Brainstorm Categories

Systematically identify stakeholders by category:

Category Examples Questions to Ask

Sponsors Executive sponsor, budget owner Who funds this? Who can cancel it?

Users End users, power users, administrators Who uses the solution daily?

Operators IT ops, support teams, maintenance Who keeps it running?

Regulators Compliance, legal, audit Who ensures we follow rules?

Affected Parties Other departments, displaced roles Who is impacted by changes?

Subject Matter Experts Domain experts, technical leads Who has critical knowledge?

Decision Makers Steering committee, architects Who approves decisions?

Influencers Opinion leaders, union reps Who shapes perceptions?

Step 2: Create Stakeholder Register

Stakeholder Register

Phase 2: Stakeholder Analysis

Step 1: Assess Each Stakeholder

For each stakeholder, evaluate:

Dimension Question Scale

Power Can they stop or significantly impact the initiative? Low/Medium/High

Interest How much do they care about the outcome? Low/Medium/High

Attitude Are they supportive, neutral, or resistant? Supporter/Neutral/Resistor

Influence Can they sway other stakeholders? Low/Medium/High

Step 2: Create Power/Interest Matrix

                HIGH INTEREST
                     │
┌────────────────────┼────────────────────┐
│   KEEP SATISFIED   │   MANAGE CLOSELY   │
│                    │                    │
│   • Regular updates│   • Active partner │
│   • Address issues │   • Key decisions  │
│   • Prevent blocks │   • Regular 1:1s   │

HIGH├────────────────────┼────────────────────┤ POWER │ │ │ MONITOR │ KEEP INFORMED │ │ │ │ │ • Minimal effort │ • Regular comms │ │ • Watch for │ • Address needs │ │ changes │ • Build support │ └────────────────────┼────────────────────┘ LOW INTEREST

Step 3: Plot Stakeholders

Power/Interest Analysis

Manage Closely (High Power, High Interest)

Keep Satisfied (High Power, Low Interest)

Keep Informed (Low Power, High Interest)

Monitor (Low Power, Low Interest)

Phase 3: Responsibility Assignment (RACI)

Create RACI matrix for key decisions and deliverables:

Legend Meaning Rule

R - Responsible Does the work Can have multiple

A - Accountable Final authority Must be exactly one

C - Consulted Provides input Before decision

I - Informed Notified of outcome After decision

RACI Matrix

Phase 4: Communication Planning

Step 1: Define Communication Needs

For each stakeholder group:

Question Purpose

What do they need to know? Content

When do they need it? Timing

How should we communicate? Channel

Who should communicate? Sender

What response do we expect? Feedback mechanism

Step 2: Create Communication Plan

Communication Plan

Phase 5: Engagement Strategy

For challenging stakeholders (resistors, skeptics), develop targeted strategies:

Resistance Analysis

Resistance Analysis

Output Formats

Narrative Summary

Stakeholder Analysis Summary

Initiative: [Name] Analyst: [Name] Date: [ISO date]

Key Stakeholders

Primary Sponsors:

• [Name] - [Role] - [Key interest/concern]

Critical Partners (Manage Closely):

• [List with brief description]

Risk Areas

1. [Stakeholder] - [Risk] - Mitigation: [Strategy]

Recommendations

1. [Specific engagement recommendation]
2. [...]

Structured Data (YAML)

stakeholder_analysis: version: "1.0" initiative: "Customer Portal Redesign" date: "{ISO-8601-date}" analyst: "stakeholder-facilitator"

stakeholders: - id: S01 name: "Jane Smith" role: "VP Customer Experience" category: sponsor organization: "Customer Care" power: high interest: high attitude: supporter influence: high strategy: manage_closely communication: frequency: weekly channel: meeting owner: "Project Manager" concerns: - "Timeline for Q2 launch" - "Budget constraints"

- id: S02
  name: "IT Operations Team"
  role: "Platform Support"
  category: operator
  organization: "IT"
  power: medium
  interest: high
  attitude: neutral
  influence: medium
  strategy: keep_informed
  communication:
    frequency: bi-weekly
    channel: email
    owner: "Tech Lead"
  concerns:
    - "Support load increase"
    - "Training requirements"

raci: - deliverable: "Requirements Sign-off" responsible: ["Product Owner"] accountable: "VP Customer Experience" consulted: ["IT Architect", "Users"] informed: ["IT Operations"]

communication_plan: - audience: "Executive Sponsor" content: "Status, risks, decisions needed" frequency: weekly channel: "1:1 Meeting" owner: "Project Manager"

Mermaid Diagrams

Power/Interest Quadrant:

quadrantChart title Stakeholder Power/Interest Matrix x-axis Low Interest --> High Interest y-axis Low Power --> High Power quadrant-1 Manage Closely quadrant-2 Keep Satisfied quadrant-3 Monitor quadrant-4 Keep Informed Executive Sponsor: [0.9, 0.95] Product Owner: [0.85, 0.8] CTO: [0.3, 0.85] End Users: [0.8, 0.3] IT Operations: [0.7, 0.5] Other Depts: [0.2, 0.2]

Multi-Persona Workshop Mode

For comprehensive stakeholder analysis, run a multi-persona workshop (similar to event storming):

Personas to Invoke:

Persona Perspective Contribution

executive-sponsor-persona

Strategic Budget, timeline, success criteria

end-user-persona

Operational Daily usage, pain points, adoption

operations-persona

Support Maintenance, reliability, training

compliance-persona

Regulatory Rules, audit, risk

devils-advocate

Critical Risks, overlooked stakeholders, conflicts

Orchestration:

• Launch all personas in parallel

• Each persona identifies stakeholders from their perspective

• Synthesize findings with provenance tracking

• Resolve conflicts and gaps

When to Use

Scenario Use Stakeholder Analysis?

New project initiation Yes - identify all affected parties

Change management Yes - plan adoption strategy

Requirements gathering Yes - ensure right people involved

Conflict resolution Yes - understand interests

Routine operations No - not needed for BAU

Common Mistakes

Mistake Impact Prevention

Missing hidden stakeholders Late surprises, resistance Use systematic categories

Ignoring resistors Project failure Develop engagement strategy

Static analysis Outdated understanding Revisit quarterly

Over-communicating to all Information overload Tailor by quadrant

References

• Load references/power-interest-matrix.md for matrix variations

• Load references/raci-matrix.md for RACI guidance

• See BABOK v3 Chapter 3 (Elicitation & Collaboration)

Related Skills

• capability-mapping

• Identify capability owners as stakeholders

• journey-mapping

• Understand user stakeholder needs

• risk-analysis

• Assess stakeholder-related risks

• prioritization

• Prioritize stakeholder engagement

• decision-analysis

• Stakeholder decision matrices

• process-modeling

• Identify domain stakeholders through process analysis

User-Facing Interface

When invoked directly by the user, this skill operates as follows.

Arguments

• <initiative-description> : Description of the initiative, project, or change to analyze stakeholders for

• --mode : Analysis mode (default: guided )

• full : Multi-persona simulation with diverse perspectives (~10K tokens)

• quick : Rapid stakeholder identification (~3K tokens)

• guided : Interactive stakeholder discovery (variable)

• --output : Output artifacts (default: all )

• register : Stakeholder register only

• matrix : Power/Interest matrix only

• raci : RACI matrix only

• all : All artifacts

• --dir : Output directory (default: docs/analysis/ )

Execution Workflow

• Parse Arguments - Extract initiative description, mode, and output format. If no description provided, ask the user what initiative to analyze.

• Execute Based on Mode:

• Full: Spawn the stakeholder-facilitator agent with persona agents (executive-sponsor, end-user, operations, compliance, devils-advocate) for comprehensive multi-perspective analysis.

• Quick: Rapid identification using standard RACI-style groups with default engagement strategies.

• Guided: Interactive discovery using AskUserQuestion for stakeholder group selection and analysis depth, then walk through category sweep, assessment, matrix placement, and additional artifacts.

• Generate Output - Produce stakeholder register, Power/Interest matrix (Mermaid quadrantChart), RACI matrix, communication plan, and resistance analysis.

• Save Results - Save to docs/analysis/stakeholder-analysis.md (or custom --dir ).

• Suggest Follow-Ups - Recommend capability-mapping for ownership links, journey-mapping for stakeholder experiences, and change management planning for resistors.

Version History

• v1.0.0 (2025-12-26): Initial release