Managing Cross-Functional Stakeholders

In a Chubby Corporate, effective cross-functional collaboration can be the difference between successful project delivery and protracted floundering.

Key Players

A hierarchical organization chart will tell you who reports into whom, but complex software projects require more sophisticated communication and collaboration. Mapping out the relationships between key players is critical to efficient engineering. You need to ask yourself:

Who are the critical players for each deliverable?

What relationships matter the most?

Is collaboration part of the project fabric?

Key Elements

Now that you've identified key players, ensure there is a primary stakeholder responsible in each project squad for each of the relevant elements related to the software project, across these key areas:

Data

Technology

Design

Change Management

Stakeholder Mapping

The goal of stakeholder mapping is to develop a strategic view of the human and institutional landscape and the relationships between the different stakeholders and the issues they care about most.

Identify Stakeholders: The first step is to identify who your stakeholders are. Stakeholders can be individuals, groups, or organizations that are affected by and/or have an interest in a particular issue or project. They can be internal (e.g., employees, managers) or external (e.g., customers, suppliers, investors, regulators, the public).

Analyze and Categorize Stakeholders: Once you've identified your stakeholders, the next step is to analyze and categorize them. This can be done based on their power (ability to influence the project or issue), interest (level of concern about the project or issue), influence (ability to change outcomes), or other relevant factors. A common tool used for this is the Power-Interest Grid, which divides stakeholders into four categories: High Power/High Interest, High Power/Low Interest, Low Power/High Interest, and Low Power/Low Interest.

Understand Stakeholder Perspectives and Interests: After categorizing stakeholders, it's important to understand their perspectives and interests. This involves understanding their needs, expectations, and potential issues or conflicts of interest.

Develop Engagement Strategies: Based on the understanding of stakeholders' perspectives and interests, develop strategies for engaging with each stakeholder or stakeholder group. The goal is to manage their expectations, address their concerns, and leverage their support.

Implement and Review: Implement the engagement strategies and regularly review and update the stakeholder map as circumstances change. Do not put the stakeholder map on a shelf when it is complete. Ensure that stakeholders identified as relevant to the build of a particular application are actively involved in the specification, design, build, and testing of the feature set. They should be part of the squad.

Stakeholder mapping is a crucial part of stakeholder management and can significantly contribute to the success of a project or business initiative. It helps ensure that stakeholders are appropriately engaged and that their interests are taken into account.