The stakeholder analysis should be undertaken at a minimum one month prior to the deadline for a project proposal to allow enough time to undertake the process in a thorough manner. The main steps involved in stakeholder analysis are:
- Clearly identify the issue of concern,
- Identify all those groups who have a significant interest in the issue. You can use a ‘snowball’ process where you ask each stakeholder to help identify other stakeholders that may have an interest.
- Investigate, using interviews, surveys, or group workshops, each stakeholder’s role, interest, motivation and capacity (strengths and weaknesses) to participate in the potential project. Also identify their relative power to affect the project, whether positively or negatively.
- Identify their relationship with other stakeholders, as to whether it is one of cooperation or conflict.
- Interpret the results of the stakeholder analysis to inform the project design.
Questions that you can ask yourself as you review the information include:
- Are you targeting those that most need it?
- Are stakeholders sufficiently engaged in the issue to have a sense of ownership over the issue and potential solutions?
- Are conflicts amongst stakeholder recognised and being addressed?
SWOT stands for ‘strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats’. It is a useful tool to analyse the internal strengths and weaknesses of an organisation and the external opportunities and threats that it faces. You may decide to do a SWOT only for the key stakeholder. Relevant questions to ask in a SWOT analysis are provided below:
Strengths
- What advantages does your organisation have in relation to the project?
- What is your organisation particularly good at? What makes your organisation special – what particular strengths does you organisation have?
Weaknesses
- What is your organisation not so good at? Try to be honest and as open as you can.
- What could be improved upon?
- What stops your organisation performing at its best? What necessary skills are missing that you might need for delivering the project?
Opportunities
- Where do you see the best forthcoming opportunities for the project?
- What is changing in the outside world that might create new opportunities for the project in the near future?
Threats
- What obstacles does the project face
- What are others doing that might create problems for the project in the near future?
- What high-risk things are you doing that might make you vulnerable to external impacts