Page 243 -

13 - PROJECT STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT

issues or problems. Rarely is “no news” from stakeholders considered to be good news, especially early in a software
project. Lack of feedback is more likely a sign of insufficient stakeholder involvement. Efforts should be made to ensure
that project stakeholders thoroughly evaluate milestone status, prototypes, and incremental versions of the product.
When this does not occur, issues and desired changes may be discovered later in the project when the issues are more
costly to fix, or it may be too late to incorporate requested changes while maintaining the delivery schedule.

13.3.1 Manage Stakeholder Engagement: Inputs

The inputs for managing project stakeholder engagement in Section 13.3.1 of the PMBOK Guide are applicable
®
for software projects. In addition, the input in Section 13.3.1.5 is applicable for software projects.

13.3.1.1 Stakeholder Management Plan

®
See Section 13.3.1.1 of the PMBOK Guide.

13.3.1.2 Communications Management Plan

See Section 13.3.1.2 of the PMBOK Guide.
®

13.3.1.3 Change Log

See Section 13.3.1.3 of the PMBOK Guide.
®

13.3.1.4 Organizational Process Assets

See Section 13.3.1.4 of the PMBOK Guide.
®

13.3.1.5 Reviews, Meetings, and Plans

Milestone reviews provide opportunities for stakeholder engagement in predictive life cycle software projects.
Periodic technical interface meetings (TIMs) can also be held. For software projects that use adaptive life cycles,
iteration plans provide an important input for managing software project stakeholder engagement. These plans provide
an initial estimate of what will be included in each iterative demonstration or release of the software. Retrospective
meetings during each release demonstration provide the opportunity to dynamically update iteration and release plans.

13.3.2 Manage Stakeholder Engagement: Tools and Techniques

The tools and techniques in Section 13.3.2 of the PMBOK Guide are applicable for managing software
®
project stakeholder engagement. Sections 13.3.2.4 and 13.3.2.5 of this Software Extension provide additional
considerations software projects.

236 ©2013 Project Management Institute. Software Extension to the PMBOK Guide Fifth Edition
®