Plan Stakeholder Engagement builds on the stakeholder register to decide how to involve each stakeholder — the strategies and actions to move them toward productive engagement. The output is the stakeholder engagement plan, often informed by a current-versus-desired engagement assessment.
It is tightly linked to communications planning but broader: engagement is about relationships and involvement, not just information flow. The plan is sensitive and usually not widely shared, since it records candid assessments of stakeholders’ attitudes.
Common pitfalls. A plan that treats all stakeholders the same; confusing engagement with broadcasting information; assessments that are never updated as attitudes shift; and strategies that look good on paper but aren’t acted on.
Inputs, Tools & Techniques, and Outputs
Inputs
- Project charter
- Project management plan
- Project documents
- Agreements
- Enterprise environmental factors
- Organizational process assets
Tools & Techniques
- Expert judgment
- Data gathering
- Data analysis
- Decision making
- Data representation
- Meetings
Outputs
- Stakeholder engagement plan
How This Process Connects
Every process hands artifacts to other processes. Follow the flow of this one:
Where its inputs come from
- Conduct Procurementsproduces: Agreements
- Develop Project Charterproduces: Project charter
- Develop Project Management Planproduces: Project management plan
More in Project Stakeholder Management
In the Domains & Principles View
The PMBOK® Guide frames this work through performance domains and principles:
In the Eighth Edition
This process describes the framework as set out in the Sixth and Seventh Editions. The Eighth Edition reorganized it into 6 principles, 7 performance domains and 40 processes.