Stakeholder Analysis & Mapping with Example & Template
Charles Moore
⚡ Smart Summary
Stakeholder Analysis and Mapping identifies who has power, interest, and impact on a project, then groups them so Business Analysts can plan engagement, prioritise communication, and reduce project risk across every phase of delivery.
What is Stakeholder Analysis?
Stakeholder Analysis is a process of mapping the interest of your stakeholders. It is a process to systematically analyze and gather qualitative information to determine whose interest should be taken into account. It helps project leaders and managers to assess stakeholders’ interests, positions, alliances, and knowledge related to the project.
What is Stakeholder Mapping?
Stakeholder Mapping is an effective process of finding the key stakeholders related to the project. It helps to learn about the stakeholders and identify all the individuals interested in the project outcome. Once all the stakeholders are identified, they can be mapped and categorized depending on different interests and engagement levels.
When Should Stakeholder Analysis Be Done?
Stakeholder analysis should always be done at the beginning of a project. Such analysis is helpful in the drafting of a log frame. A log frame is a general approach to project planning, monitoring, and evaluation in the form of a ‘logframe matrix’. Whenever log frames are reconsidered during the life cycle of a project, a stakeholder analysis will be useful. This means that whenever mid-term reviews or annual monitoring take place, stakeholder analysis should be part of the exercise.
Stakeholders Categorization
Stakeholders are categorized into two categories
| Internal Stakeholders | External Stakeholders |
|---|---|
| Within the organization: Employees and Management | Outside the organization: Government & Trade Association |
Process for Stakeholder Analysis and Mapping
The following stakeholder mapping example explains the primary aspects that need to be considered for stakeholder analysis.
Step 1) Identify your stakeholders: Your boss, your team, senior executives, prospective customers, your family, etc.
Step 2) Assess how those stakeholders could be impacted or have an effect on the organization
Step 3) Prioritize your Stakeholders-
| Stakeholder Type | Action |
|---|---|
| High power, interested people | – Manage closely |
| High power, less interested people | – Keep satisfied |
| Low power, interested people | – Keep informed |
| Low power, less interested people | – Monitor with minimum effort |
Step 4) Identify areas of conflicts (organization vs. stakeholder, stakeholder vs. stakeholder)
Step 5) Prioritize, reconcile and balance stakeholders
Step 6) Align significant stakeholder needs with organizational strategies and actions
Next in this example of stakeholder mapping, let us learn about things to take care of while dealing with stakeholders
- Could you eliminate processes, which do not add stakeholder value?
- How would you communicate with stakeholders?
- Do your communications encourage stakeholder exchange?
- Do you communicate the stakeholder the value of the deal?
Important Questions to Ask During Stakeholder Analysis and Mapping
| Different attribute check for stakeholder | Question to ask your stakeholders |
|---|---|
| Identification of stakeholder | Who is paying for the project? Who will receive the deliverables or profits from the project? Both from your organization and client organization who will work with you to implement the project? Identify the expert for the project domain in the organization. |
| Interest | What direct benefit do stakeholders expect to get from the project? What outcomes do stakeholders expect as a result of the project? What changes do stakeholders need to make as a result of the project? Are there any conflicts of interest amongst the stakeholders? |
| Influence | What legitimate authority do stakeholders have in the organization? Who controls the project assets and resources? What degree of influence or negotiation power do your identified stakeholders carry in the organization? |
| Impact | How much impact a stakeholder could have on the project, and whether this will affect the success of the project. |
Also, you need to figure out when stakeholders will become involved in the following-
- Project Vision
- Project Scope Definition
- Business Process Analysis
- Needs Elicitation
- Requirement Validation
- Design reviews
- User Acceptance Testing
You can create a “Participation Matrix Table” for the stakeholders as given in the below stakeholder map example:
| Participation Type | Inform | Consult | Partner | Control |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Needs Assessment | ||||
| Planning | ||||
| Implement | ||||
| Monitoring & Evaluation |
Stakeholder Analysis Template
Below is a Stakeholder Analysis Template. It will help you identify your stakeholders and group them by different categories and criteria.
Download Stakeholder Analysis Template
Tips to manage your Stakeholders
- Do not complain. Accept stakeholders as they are
- For guaranteed success, get the key leadership involved.
- Make sure you involve your stakeholders early in the business analysis process
- For sensitive issues, ensure full confidentiality with all stakeholders to win their trust.
- To avoid conflicts, help all stakeholders in realizing their personal gains from the project.
- Stakeholder mapping and analysis always helps.
Popular Stakeholder Mapping Techniques
Once stakeholders have been identified, several proven techniques help a Business Analyst visualise them and choose the right engagement strategy. Most projects use one or two of the following techniques, sometimes in combination.
- Power-Interest Grid (Mendelow’s Matrix): Plots each stakeholder on a 2×2 grid of power versus interest, producing the four groups already used in Step 3 of the process above — Manage Closely, Keep Satisfied, Keep Informed, and Monitor. It is the most widely used mapping tool and works well for small and mid-size projects.
- Salience Model: Introduced by Mitchell, Agle, and Wood, it classifies stakeholders on three attributes — power, legitimacy, and urgency — and produces seven stakeholder types such as dominant, dependent, and definitive. It is useful when a project has many stakeholders with competing claims.
- Power-Dynamism Matrix: Maps stakeholders on power against how quickly their positions change. It highlights unpredictable but powerful stakeholders that need close monitoring during organisational change.
- Influence-Impact Matrix: Similar to the Power-Interest Grid, but replaces interest with impact on project outcomes. It is often used when the same stakeholder can influence multiple deliverables.
- Force Field Analysis: A technique from Kurt Lewin that lists the forces pushing for and against a change and rates their strength. It is useful when a project depends on stakeholder buy-in for a specific decision.
- Network Diagram / Sociogram: Draws stakeholders as nodes and their relationships as edges. It reveals informal influencers and communication paths that a grid can miss.
Choose the technique based on project size and complexity. A short project may only need the Power-Interest Grid. A large organisational change usually combines the Salience Model with a network diagram so that both formal authority and informal influence are visible on one page.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholder analysis is easy to run poorly. The following mistakes appear often in projects and are worth checking against your own approach.
- Treating the map as a one-time exercise: Stakeholder positions shift as the project moves through phases. Revisit the map at every major milestone, not just at the start.
- Ignoring indirect stakeholders: End users, regulators, and support teams often influence adoption even when they are not decision-makers. Add them to the map early.
- Focusing only on power, not interest: A powerful stakeholder with low interest still needs a light-touch update plan, otherwise a late objection can derail the project.
- Confusing preference with priority: Every stakeholder has an opinion. Only some of those opinions align with project objectives. Weight the map by strategic fit, not vocal frequency.
- Skipping written engagement plans: A stakeholder register without a matching communication plan rarely gets used. Pair each quadrant with a documented cadence, channel, and owner.
Reviewing the stakeholder map against these mistakes at the start of each phase keeps the analysis honest and the project on course.
