Identify Stakeholders

Identifies the people, groups, and organizations affected by the project and records their interests, influence, and impact in the stakeholder register. Done early, it prevents the late surprises that derail projects.

Process Group Initiating Knowledge Area Project Stakeholder Management

This process answers a deceptively simple question: who has a stake, and how much? It produces the stakeholder register — a living record of who is affected, their interests and expectations, and their potential influence. It starts at initiation but is repeated throughout, because stakeholders change as the project unfolds.

Identify Stakeholders: key inputs and outputs — The key inputs feeding Identify Stakeholders and the deliverables it produces — full ITTOs are listed below.

The PM analyzes power, interest, and attitude, and classifies stakeholders so engagement effort can be focused where it matters most. The output feeds nearly every other plan: communications, risk, and engagement strategies all depend on knowing who is in the picture.

Common pitfalls. Identifying only the obvious, friendly stakeholders; doing it once at kickoff and never revisiting; ignoring quiet but powerful stakeholders; and recording names without capturing what each one actually wants.

Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs

Inputs

Project charter
Business documents
Project management plan
Project documents
Agreements
Enterprise environmental factors
Organizational process assets

Tools & Techniques

Expert judgment
Data gathering
Data analysis
Data representation
Meetings

Outputs

Stakeholder register
Change requests
Project management plan updates
Project documents updates