Speaker 1: Hey, the boss just asked me to contact all the stakeholders on the software project and tell them it's going to be delayed for a day, but she didn't tell me who the stakeholders were. I think so far I have the design team, the marketing team, the accounting department, the guys from the sixth floor, the HR department, and oh, the freelancer that we use sometimes, Susan. Do you think I missed anyone?

Speaker 2: That's a pretty long list. It can be tricky to identify stakeholders in project management, but it's essential to figure out exactly who needs to be informed about delays, updates, or changes to the project scope. Stakeholders in project management are anyone with an interest in your project's outcome. This includes members of the project team, project managers, executives, project sponsors, customers, and users. You can tell when a person or organization is a stakeholder because they'll be affected by the results of your project at some point in its life cycle. Communicating effectively with all stakeholders is crucial, but different types of stakeholders will require different types of communication. Key stakeholders have the influence and authority to dictate whether a project is a success or not. You need to meet their goals because they have the power to make or break your project. When you're looking for key stakeholders, consider customers, project managers, project team members, project sponsors or financiers, a steering committee, executives, resource managers, government agencies, media outlets, contractors, owners, and even society at large. Once you've identified all stakeholders, you can keep them informed as necessary. If you're looking for the perfect tool to help update stakeholders, look no further than Wrike. Wrike allows you to set up automatic messages that notify tagged stakeholders whenever something changes with a task or project, reducing your workload and leaving you more time to plan a successful project.