project terms, authority refers to the overall right to make project decisions that others must follow, including the right to apply project resources, expend funds, or give approvals. Having opinions about how an aspect should be addressed is different from having the authority to decide how it will be addressed. Mistaking a person’s level of authority can lead to frustration as well as wasted time and money (see Chapter 12 for more on authority).
Take the following steps to define each stakeholder’s authority as early as possible in your projects:
1 Clarify each stakeholder’s tasks and decisions.Define with each person their tasks and their role in those tasks. For example, will they just work on the task, or will they also approve the schedules, resource expenditures, and work approaches?
2 Ask each stakeholder what their authority is regarding each decision and task.Ask about individual tasks rather than all issues in a particular area. For example, a person can be more confident about their authority to approve supply purchases up to $5,000 than about their authority to approve all equipment purchases, no matter the type or amount. Clarify decisions that the stakeholder can make. For decisions needing someone else’s approval, find out whose approval they need. (Ask — never assume!)
3 Ask each stakeholder how they know what authority they have.Does a written policy, procedure, or guideline confirm the authority? Did the person’s manager tell them in conversation? Is the person just assuming? If the person has no specific confirming information, encourage them to get it.
4 Check out each stakeholder’s history of exercising authority.Have you or other people worked with this person in the past? Have they been overruled on decisions that they said they were authorized to make? If so, ask them why they believe they won’t be similarly overruled this time.
5 Verify whether anything has recently changed regarding each stakeholder’s authority.Do you have any reason to believe that this person’s authority has changed? Are they new to their current group or position? Have they recently started working for a new manager? If any of these situations exists, encourage the person to find specific documentation to confirm their authority for their benefit as well as yours.
Assessing Your Stakeholders’ Power and Interest
A stakeholder’s potential impact on a project depends on the power they can exercise and the interest they have in exercising that power. Assessing the relative levels of each helps you decide with whom you should spend your time and effort to realize the greatest benefits.
Power is a person’s ability to influence the actions of others. This ability can derive either from the direct authority the person has to require people to respond to their requests (ascribed power; refer to the preceding section and to Chapter 12 for more about authority) or the ability they have to induce others to do what they ask because of the respect they have for them professionally or personally (achieved power). (See Chapter 16 for more information on these two types of power.) In either case, the more power a person has, the better able they are to marshal people and resources to support your project. Typically, drivers and supporters have higher levels of power over your project than observers do.
On the other hand, a person’s interest in something is how much they care or are curious about it or how much they pay attention to it. The more interested a person is in your project, the more likely they are to want to use their power to help the project succeed.
You can define a stakeholder’s relative levels of power and interest related to your project as being either high or low. You then have four possible combinations for each stakeholder’s relative levels of power and interest. The particular values of a stakeholder’s power and interest ratings suggest the chances that the stakeholder may have a significant impact on your project and, therefore, the relative importance of keeping that stakeholder interested and involved in your project.
Figure 4-3 depicts a Power-Interest Grid, which represents these four possible power-interest combinations as distinct quadrants on a two-dimensional graph. As the project manager, you should spend a minimal amount of time and effort with stakeholders who have low levels of both power and interest (Quadrant I). Spend increasingly greater amounts of time and effort with stakeholders who have a low level of power and a high level of interest (Quadrant II) and a low level of interest and a high level of power (Quadrant III), respectively. You should spend the most time and effort keeping stakeholders with high degrees of both power and interest (Quadrant IV) informed and involved (check out Chapter 15 for different ways to communicate with your project’s stakeholders).
© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
FIGURE 4-3: Involving stakeholders with different levels of power and interest in your project.
Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 7
Table 4-4 notes topics in this chapter that may be addressed on the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification exam and that are also included in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 7th Edition (PMBOK 7).
TABLE 4-4 Chapter 4 Topics in Relation to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 7
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