From the course: Business Analysis Foundations

Who are the stakeholders?

From the course: Business Analysis Foundations

Who are the stakeholders?

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- So up to this point, we've been concentrating on the business analyst: their skills and roles. But what about the folks that they interact with? Sometimes, we don't even know who these people are. Here's an example that might help you start thinking more broadly about stakeholders. So, one of my neighbors was doing some construction. He got the permits from the city. He hired the trucks, and notified the neighborhood that some big equipment would be making noise and, occasionally, blocking the road. But what he didn't realize was that the dirt kicked up from the construction would land on everyone's solar panels. Everybody was furious because, now, they had to get their panels professionally cleaned. The takeaway, here, is this: those stakeholders, or neighbors, really, who had solar panels were impacted by the construction. He wasn't aware that those stakeholders would be impacted by his work. So what do we need to do? We need to make sure we know who our stakeholders are. Once we understand the need, the business analyst has to identify anyone who might be impacted by what we have been analyzing. These are usually referred to as "stakeholders." The definition of a stakeholder is "any individual, group, or organization that may be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by, or can impact a decision, activity, or outcome of a program or project." Stakeholders can include several people: the group or individuals who initially propose the study, those who will benefit from the solution, those who have special knowledge of the current situation, and those that will use, support, or implement the result. So yes, stakeholders are often thought of as those affected by the project. But we also need to consider those stakeholders who will be affecting us. Usually, it's regulatory groups. For example, if you need to get a permit and it takes forever to get it approved, that can impact your schedule. Any group, either internal or external, that requires specific compliance can impact your work. An example of an internal stakeholder might be purchasing. Likely, they have a set of vendors you can buy from. But they don't realize that what you need to buy has to be compliant with certain standards. And the approved vendors don't comply. So you can't buy what you need. You can now see how the notion of a stakeholder can vary. The BA needs to be aware of and anticipate what impact they may have on the project. So how many stakeholders do we usually engage with? Well, it depends. But it's never a small number. Identifying your stakeholders is just part of the challenge, but it's important that we know who we are impacting and who may have an impact on us.

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