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| ggw98 2003-11-13, 10:50 am |
| I've paid for the SkillSoft round of training for IT Project+. On the practice exam, a question really threw me. They had competitors listed as stakeholders.
I don't think I understand that.
Can that be true? How? | |
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| William Heldman in 'IT Project+ Study Guide' defines stakeholders as
"those people or organizations that have something to benefit or lose as a result of the project."
Usually they would be in the organization itself. People can "lose" as a result of a successful project as it might mean they lose staff or responsibilities.
A competitor would "lose" if you succeed. Therefore they have a vested interest in your failure.
Personally, I agree with Heldman, but I'm not convinced entirely about competitors as in my projects I consider stakeholders as people I need to consult with.
Hope my two cents helps ... | |
| azimuth40 2003-11-16, 5:26 pm |
| The term stakeholders is used in politics and education also with the same meaning Heldman affixes to it. It is a pretty generic term used in all industries and endevors and includes the potential winners and the potential losers. If you are affected in anyway at all then you are a stakeholder. Consider that a good portion of all projects are multi-entity affairs.
Take a computer for instance if you make them and you buy disk drives from Maxtor and your project fails then maxtor has something to lose even though they are not part of your organization. If your project requires Maxtor to be able to deliver "x" drives per month then they become part of your "virtual" organization and therefore are a stakeholder. A fallback plan might be to buy drives for Seagate if Maxtor can not deliver and they too become stakeholders but you may not need to consult with either directly.
You can see this more in politics and anything that taxpayers are responsible for. Taxpayers are stakeholders in anything related to government but are rarely consulted. | |
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| heh... this feel like management 101...
stakeholders INCLUDES competitors, it is a broad term of any groups that affect and are affected by the organization. |
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