Plan Stakeholder Engagement

Develops approaches to involve stakeholders based on their needs, expectations, and impact, producing the stakeholder engagement plan. It turns the stakeholder list into an engagement strategy.

Process Group Planning Knowledge Area Project Stakeholder Management

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.

Plan Stakeholder Engagement: key inputs and outputs — The key inputs feeding Plan Stakeholder Engagement and the deliverables it produces — full ITTOs are listed below.

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