The central role of stakeholders in the successful delivery of projects is becoming increasingly recognised. However, whilst critical to success, these roles are neither passive nor predetermined. The organisation has significant opportunities to influence stakeholder’s perceptions and expectations for the benefit of both the stakeholders and the project; but only when there are effective relationships in place with each key stakeholder.

Identifying, mapping and prioritising a project’s stakeholder community is only the beginning.  Projects and other initiatives can only be considered successful when their key stakeholders acknowledge they are a success.  This requires the delivery team to effectively engage with each of its key stakeholders to understand and manage their expectations and then deliver the outcome to meet or exceed these ‘managed expectations’. Expectations are never ‘fixed’; effective communication can help change perceptions and expectations to make them realistic and achievable. Conversely, ineffective communications can create the perception of failure in the mind of a stakeholder even when the deliverable is ‘on time, on budget and delivering the specified scope’.

Engaging effectively and ethically with key stakeholders to help create a successful project outcome requires significant levels of skill and maturity. SRMM defines five levels of  maturity and suggests a route most organisations can follow to progress from ‘Level 1’ to ‘Level 5’.  The 5 levels of SRMM are:

• A ‘how-to’ book to provide the fundamental processes and practices to support either individuals or organisations in improving stakeholder management in endeavours such as projects, program management offices (PMO), but also in supporting organisational survival during mergers and acquisitions, preparing for the tender bidding, marketing campaigns based on the Stakeholder Circle^® methodology and tools.

• For organisations that have recognised the importance of stakeholder engagement to their success a guidebook for assessing their current maturity regarding implementation of stakeholder relationship management and a series of guidelines and milestones for achieving their preferred level of maturity using the Stakeholder Relationship Maturity Model (SRMM^®).

• Stakeholder management theory and its application to senior management stakeholders: what makes engaging them so difficult?
• Managing (or advising) upwards: the culture of organisational leadership and the demands of decision making in today’s competitive environment; 
• An exploration of ways to secure and maintain the engagement and support of senior stakeholders, through diverse approaches based on behavioural theories, influence networks, operating within the power relationships of the organisation; 
• Developing or adapting your sponsor (or leadership team) engagement practices to ensure a greater chance of successful delivery of organisational activities.

• A ‘how-to’ book for the fundamental processes and practices to support either individuals or organisations in building and maintain upwards relationships with important stakeholders. These relationships are essential in all aspects of work to deliver an organisation’s business strategy through projects and programs. Similar relationships must also be considered during activities that support organisational survival such as mergers and acquisitions, or boosting organisational advantage through more effective processes for tender bidding, marketing campaigns or even critical operational activities; 
• Through contributions from researchers and practitioners in related fields the book will provide diverse perspectives on the changing world of management and stakeholder relationship management through considerations of culture, group and individual behaviour, organisational management theory and other related subjects.

40,000+ Copies of Stakeholder Management Thesis downloaded

Dr. Lynda Bourne's Thesis 'Project Relationship Management and the Stakeholder Circle' has been downloaded over twenty thousand times in the last year. Whilst our approach to stakeholder management has moved forward since the Thesis was published in 2005, this academic work is still the foundation of our development work and thoroughly canvases the underlying stakeholder theories and literature the Stakeholder Circle is based on.

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