Project Management – Managing Stakeholder Expectations

Many times the frustrating notes that we keep hearing from project customers, project team members, project managers is “I don’t see what I was looking for” or even another version as “I am not getting what I am paying for”.

You may have seen the following cartoon before but it really portrays the realities of project management, project delivery and failure thereof.

In every project there are different stakeholders involved. Project sponsor or typically customers is considered to be the most important because, for him the project is being delivered. Project team is the one, who does the job of delivering outcome and project manager is responsible for overall project delivery.

As a project manager, you have to understand diverse expectations of stakeholders, align those with greater business goals and make them realistic. Inspire project team to keep on progressing with project delivery and adopt to changes as project progresses. Keep project stakeholders informed of project timeline, project progress, benefits project offers and so on.

What if project manager is unable to manage project stakeholder expectations?

• You end of delivering a product or service that customer does not want or not ready to use.
  • Simply put, you are ensuring that you have lost trust and any future/prospect of business association
• Higher management is quite likely lose a confidence in your capabilities to deliver project
  • You are not likely to get another chance to deliver new project, rather you may have to work as coordinator or it will put a question mark on your career
• Team would have lost the interest in working for you. If it has already put long working hours for this project, team will not see their hard work bearing any fruit rather resulted into a failed project
  • You will be considered as someone pushes people but does not reward them

In next post we will look at how to engage better with stakeholders so that stakeholder’s expectations can be managed better. And we will also see how ZilicusPM helps you in identification and management of stakeholders.

Your life can be become easier with the right project management system. ZilicusPM is the right PM tool for you and your team. Get started now.

Additional readings about project management, leadership

• Case Study: What Happens When Project Team Has Dual Reporting
• Avoid These 10 Most Common Mistakes That Leads to Project Failure
• Back2Basics: Ultimate Project Management Guide: Project Planning
• 8 Reasons to Decide Whether Your Organization Needs Project Management Office
• Compare the best project management software 
• All in one project management software
• Guide to selecting best project management software

Do you know ZilicusPM project management software offers comprehensive project planning, project tracking, project collaboration capabilities such as

• Gantt Chart
• Time Tracking
• Budgeting and Cost Management
• Resource Planning and Management
• Issue Tracking
• Risk Management
• Change Management
• Meeting Management
• Stakeholder Management
• Project Portfolio Management
• Project Reporting
• Document Management to help you manage and deliver projects better?

About Zilicus

Zilicus offers the best project portfolio management tool ZilicusPM, with robust project management tools capabilities and easy ways to track project management KPI,

Know more about project portfolio management, Gantt chart, best project management tool, project management office, project management tips, project planning guide, project risk management, project scope management, effective project management, project manager guides and know more about Project Portfolio Management Software, Project Management Software Guide.