The definition
Freeman (1984) gave us the modern definition: a stakeholder is "any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization's objectives." The definition is broad on purpose — it forces you to think past the obvious sponsors and remember the people who can quietly torpedo the project (legal, security, the team that owns the system you depend on).
The categories
- Sponsor — the person whose budget pays for it. Usually one. Their job is to fund + unblock. Your job is to keep them confident.
- Decision-makers — people who can say yes or no to scope, design, and trade-offs. Often not the sponsor.
- Doers — the team building the thing. Their feedback is craft-grade; their morale is your problem.
- Affected parties — people whose work changes because of yours. Easy to forget. Often the source of the "we should have asked them earlier" postmortem line.
- Influencers — people without formal authority who can build or kill momentum (a respected senior IC, a vocal customer).
Mendelow's power-interest grid
Mendelow (1981) gave us the 2×2 grid most PMs end up drawing on a whiteboard. Plot each stakeholder by how much power they have over the project (low/high) and how much interest they have in it (low/high). The four quadrants dictate how to engage:
| Quadrant | Power | Interest | How to engage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manage closely | High | High | Heavy involvement. Frequent updates. They get a say. |
| Keep satisfied | High | Low | Light updates, but never surprise them. Their power is latent. |
| Keep informed | Low | High | They want to know — give them the standing update. Don't burn cycles negotiating. |
| Monitor | Low | Low | Awareness only. Don't waste energy. |
↳ in the wild
The mapping is dynamic
A stakeholder's position on the grid changes as the project progresses. A sponsor who was "manage closely" in discovery often shifts to "keep satisfied" in execution. Re-map quarterly, or after any major event (a leadership change, a budget cut, a scope expansion).
↳ the question that catches missed stakeholders