The Importance of Stakeholder Management in Project Management
An information system is a huge technical advancement in the field of communication. This information system can be used for solving problems related to various types of departments including the health sectors. The information system is able to track a specific type of information which is required by the users.
In this case study, the country health department is using the information system to track the information effectively for the work which is assigned to them. In this case, the major flaw is that the information system cannot be expanded in the near future. To overcome this problem, the CHD has implemented some communication plan.
In this report, the communication plan of the CHD will be evaluated in the sense of it is realistic enough to adopt or not to communicate with all the stakeholders. With that evaluation, a comparison between project management practices and assessment of the case study will be done. Following that a recommendation will be given for the communication plan and after that conclusion about the report will be drawn.
The CHD is developing a vast project which is developing a disease database which will help to identify a disease quickly and will provide a valid process to fight against that disease. To lead this project in the way of success the project manager needs funding from outside and this funding will be provided by an external stakeholder. To get the full support of that stakeholder, the CHD must communicate with all the project stakeholder properly, and for the communication purpose, the CHD has developed a communication plan.
In this communication plan, the project manager has stated some major stakeholders of any projects who are the clients, senior management, sponsor, team members of the project, employees, sub-contractors, suppliers, unions, government agencies, news media and the community [1]. In the case of the client the communication, it will be done by emails, telephone, meeting and by the teleconferencing. In this communication session, the status of the project will be elaborated to the clients [2]. The timings of this communication depend on the schedule of the project, and this communication will be done with the clients in formal communication with high details. The other stakeholders who are the senior management, sponsor, project team member, and the employees will be communicated in the same way as of the clients. In this case, this type of communication method is realistic enough to lead this project to success, and it is a great way to communicate with the above mentioned stakeholders [3]. This is a great way of communication with the stakeholders because this technique is used to communicate with the most important stakeholders. This technique will directly provide each and every detail of the project which will keep the stakeholders happy. More than one method of communication is chosen here which also includes the electronic medium of communication. This ensures that no stakeholders will miss an update about the project. Also, high detailed and formal level of communication will help to understand the situation better to the stakeholders.
Evaluating the Communication Plan of CHD
Subcontractors and the suppliers are no need in this project, so these two stakeholders are not needed to communicate. The other stakeholders who are the Government agencies, unions, news media, and community are less important for this project because they are not directly benefiting the project [4]. Government agencies and unions communicated about the benefits of the project and how it will enhance public safety. This plan is totally correct about communicating with the mentioned stakeholders because the internal evaluation of the project is not required by those two stakeholders. Only the information about the project benefits is enough for them. The Government agencies are communicated whenever they requested as every detail are not required by them. Also, the news media and communicated whenever they request the information because every specific detail is not wanted by them, and the project benefit will be elaborated to them. Community peoples will be informed through town hall meetings. This type of communication process is realistic enough for handling all the stakeholders of the project effectively as it can manage all the stakeholders at the same time.
One of the main practices of a successful project is good communication among the individuals or the organizations which are involved with the project [5]. This is mainly known as the stakeholders. The stakeholders can be of two types, internal and external. In this case study all the stakeholders are identified and how these stakeholders can benefit the project is determined. In this case study, it is determined that how all the identified stakeholders will be communicated and with that, it is also determined that when these stakeholders will be communicated which is an ideal communication plan for this project as some stakeholders are not benefiting this project directly. In a sense this they are benefiting from this project indirectly, so the information is provided to them whenever they needed it. This will help to manage all the stakeholders at once, and for an ideal project management practice, this type of communicational plan is required. Also, this project is divided into some sort of part which ensures the perfect planning of the project which is necessary for ideal project management practice.
In the case of a publicly run project if there are any stakeholders such as government agencies and unions, then the communication plan needs something different from usual. The communication plan which can be recommended is the:
- In this case, the government becomes a major stakeholder as the permission is needed before engaging with the main project. So every major and minor update must be provided to the government [6].
- The unions must be communicated about the commitment and collaboration with the project [7].
- The benefit of the project and with that the cost of the project must be delivered to the government agencies.
- The progress of the existing project should be provided to the unions and government agencies.
- Creating a strategic framework for the project which will help the government agencies and unions to communicate with other stakeholders of the project such as suppliers [8].
All the above mentioned recommendation should be followed and implemented because it will help to progress the project further. Providing every detail of the project to the government agencies is needed as it can help to resolve which can arise in the future. Also, for the public project cases, the main funding comes from the government side, so it is important to aware them about every cost related operation of the project. The commitment and collaboration of the union are needed to finish the project in a given time. An existing project update was given to the government agencies to ensure that no changes are needed in the existing project and to progress the work further. Also, the government may need to communicate with the other stakeholders such as materials suppliers and technology provider to discuss the costs related to the project. So communication between the stakeholders is also needed.
Conclusion:
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the project stakeholders provides a major role in the case of ideal project management. The project stakeholders provide the opportunity to complete the project effectively. So, managing the project stakeholders is an essential thing. In this report, it the case study of CHD is evaluated. In this evaluation, the communication plan of the CHD has analysed whether it is realistic enough for this project or not. Analysing the plan it has been found that the project manager has developed an accurate communication plan for this project. Following that a comparison of the communication plan of the case study with project management practices has been done. In some cases, there can be publicly run projects, and this is different from the privately run projects. A recommendation for a communication plan is given for this type of publicly run projects. Also, the justification of the proposed communication plan is given.
References:
- Eskerod, Pernille, and Anna Lund Jepsen. Project stakeholder management. Routledge, 2016.
- Kim, Jungsoo, and Richard De Dear. “Workspace satisfaction: The privacy-communication trade-off in open-plan offices.” Journal of Environmental Psychology36 (2013): 18-26.
- Roeder, Tres. Managing project stakeholders: building a foundation to achieve project goals. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
- Eskerod, Pernille, and Martina Huemann. “Sustainable development and project stakeholder management: What standards say.” International Journal of Managing Projects in Business6, no. 1 (2013): 36-50.
- Kerzner, Harold, and Harold R. Kerzner. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.
- Jones, Thomas M., Andrew C. Wicks, and R. Edward Freeman. “Stakeholder theory: The state of the art.” The Blackwell guide to business ethics(2017): 17-37.
- TILT, CAROL, Jeffrey Unerman, and LEONARDO RINALDI. “The role of stakeholder engagement and dialogue within the sustainability accounting and reporting process.” In Sustainability accounting and accountability, pp. 104-125. Routledge, 2014.
- Too, Eric G., and Patrick Weaver. “The management of project management: A conceptual framework for project governance.” International Journal of Project Management32, no. 8 (2014): 1382-1394.