STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT

LESSONS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT (lesson1, volume 1)

STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT

I have often been asked what the relevance of project management (PM) is in this environment and if indeed the PM processes advocated in our training courses can actually be adopted on real projects in Nigeria.

It is in answer to these questions that I have decided to start this series of essays aptly titled lessons in project management.

I intend to select ongoing and past projects in Nigeria (public and private sector projects) and analyze how PM processes if adopted could have impacted on the success of such projects and for projects that utilized PM practices, discuss how these practices helped the projects succeed.

My preferred project management standard or best practice guide is the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide created by the Project Management Institute (PMI) hence it will be my reference document for this series.

The Case study (Lekki – Epe Expressway Project, Lagos, Nigeria.) – The Background

The Lekki – Epe expressway way expansion project had gone smoothly, at least to outsiders like you and I, until recently when the toll gate phase of the project was reached. Indigenes of Lekki were not receptive to the idea of the toll gates and planned collection of tolls on a route they have plied without “much hassles” for the past 20 years because of some “minor work”. They simply could not or would not understand the explanations of the Government or the construction company on why this has to be or how it is going to be to their benefit.

The PM Problem

There was inadequate stakeholder identification at the initiating phase of the project. An important stakeholder group (the community) was left out and it has created issues which can escalate and cause problems for the project.

The Project Sponsor has sunk enormous amounts of resources already into the project, the profitability of the project is hinged on the toll collection and the host community is not receptive to the idea. The Project Sponsor at this time I reckon will be spending a good amount of time and energy addressing this issue, distracting them from the project work, it may affect the progress of the project thereby impacting on the overall cost and finish date of the construction work. These are factors that will ultimately affect project delivery and by extension the organisation’s fortunes.

The PM Solution

Good project management practice could have forestalled this present situation. In the PMBOK Guide, 4^th Edition, Identification of Stakeholders is a process that should have been carried out in the initiation phase (early stages) of the project. At this stage, the PMBOK recommends that the organisation performing the project identify all people and organizations impacted by the project and document relevant information regarding their interests, involvement and impact on project success.

The organization would at this stage in its project management verify the success criteria of the project, have the influence and objectives of the project stakeholders reviewed and come to a decision on how to proceed on the project. The essence of adequate stakeholder identification at this stage is to ensure that one or more stakeholders that may have been left out initially do not show up in the course of the project and put the project at risk as is the case in this project.

PM practice would have helped handle stakeholder needs upfront and there would have been improved probability for shared ownership, deliverable acceptance (the toll gate for instance) and other stakeholder satisfaction.

The PM Verdict

Adoption of the Stakeholder Identification process in the initiating processes of the project would have saved the Sponsors cost, time, hassles and bad publicity on this project. QED

‘Seye Kolawole, PMP

OAKPM – adding value to people and projects

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