Stakeholder management: stakeholder register, power/interest grid, engagement and managing expectations

A stakeholder is any person, group or organization that can affect, be affected by or believe they are affected by the project. For an IT project that includes the sponsor and team, but also end users, department managers, the service desk that will support the result, security and compliance teams, vendors, labor unions, and sometimes regulators or customers. Stakeholders you miss early tend to appear late with new requirements or objections, which is expensive because the design may already be built.