Stakeholder Management Assignment On Managing Project

Question

Task:
PART 1
Managing stakeholders effectively is crucial for successful implementation of projects and for realising intended organisational benefits. Based on your research, this assignment asks you to articulate theoretical foundations of stakeholder management in the context of project management, critically evaluate the factors that influence effectiveness of stakeholder management, and based on this evaluation, make well-argued recommendations to project managers.

PART 2
Earned Value Management (EVM) approach may help a project manager to control the cost and time required to execute a project. Based on your research, explain how using EVM can add value to project management. Further explain any limitations in using this approach. You may support your explanations with the help of examples or case references.

Answer

PART 1
1. Executive summary
The stakeholder management assignmentintends to shed light on the aspect of stakeholder management in regards to project management. Grounded on the stakeholder management and concept development, this study provided in the stakeholder management assignmentprovidesacomprehensiveunderstanding of stakeholder management and the manner in which stakeholders could be effectively communicated by the project managers. This study developed within this stakeholder management assignment initially, discussed stakeholder theories and different perspectives related to the same. Stakeholder mapping, the importance of change management, and recommendations based on these discussions have been included in this study. The stakeholder management assignmentalso discusses the different approaches incorporated by the PM for effective stakeholder management. Lastly, an argument on recommendations for better stakeholder governance for different projects has also been documented in this stakeholder management assignment.

2. Introduction
This study on stakeholder management assignment is intended to bring and develop knowledge regarding stakeholder management and its importance in implementing stakeholder theory in regards to project management in different organizations. Along with the executive summary, the main discussion part of this stakeholder management assignmentwill be divided into underlining the prominence of stakeholder system and project management steps correlated to stakeholder management within a project. Additionally, the rationale of this study on stakeholder management assignmentis based on identifying different factors related to stakeholder management along with the approaches that could directly influence the project management process to effectively buildinternal business communication in organizations. Later, the stakeholder management assignmentwill provide recommendations for better stakeholder management in the future with a precise conclusion at the end.

3. Main Discussion on the theme of stakeholder management assignment
a) Review of the concept/theory of stakeholder management
Stakeholder theory and hypothesis incline to big business ethics, beliefs, and makings when adapting to associates associated with a project or company. It looks to upgrade relationships with stakeholders, and theways of refiningcompetencies all based on the mission of the project (Minoja, 2012). The stakeholder management concept involves several aspects, which should be implemented based on the notion and comprehension of the company’s legislatures, clients, breadwinners, creditors, systems, law-making bodies, political enterprises, exchange affiliations, tradingrelations or even contenders, as they can influence the project outcome to a great extent (Minoja, 2012). On the other hand, the core task of any stakeholder theory is to elaborate management and responsibilities with the instrumental application of stakeholders' theory to normally resolve the problems by assuming the base role of organizational management (Freudenreich, Lüdeke-Freund &Schaltegger, 2019).

As indicated by Chung & Crawford (2016) in regards to the stakeholder management assignment,stakeholder theory and hypothesis have enlightening, instrumental, and standardizing viewpoints that may be mutually poised. It is essential in studies to find and characterize the attributes and practices of gatherings alongside how they might be overseen during the project. Instrumental utilization of the experimental records to find associations among the control of partners and arriving at corporate objectives lays a firm foundation for effective stakeholder management. Regularizing is a central hypothesis on the capacity of the business and how it can ethically implement the procedures, and thus, ensuring that the control adheres to the philosophical rules.

Stakeholder theory researchers have nowadays emphasized on two critical calls: the first is for the blending of methodology and morals of partner idea and key administration, and the subsequent one call is for the improvement of a unique procedure to ensure collaboration amid the executives. It has endeavoured to answer these calls through building up a hypothetical structure that joins the executives as partners, partner devotion to help out the organization, key leaders' moral responsibility, and a firm strategy (Nguyen, Mohamed &Panuwatwanich, 2018). It can be statedin the stakeholder management assignmentthat the directors cannot satisfy each of the partners' needs straight away and in a customized way.At first, the ability to use both hands strategy to collaborate with the executives is helpful for the partners' commitment to participate and cooperate throughout the project. Secondly,the organization’s approach and key leaders' ethical devotion moderate the relationship among the partners to use both hands partner control and partner devotion to ensure appropriate coordination. Besides this, drawing on this hypothetical structure, it attempts to address the choice for the blending of procedure and morals with the guide of introducing a three-phase calculated model that recognizes the targets, the field, and the switches of coordination.

The reason for the Stakeholder hypothesis discovered in the context of stakeholder management assignment is to guarantee that the project management stages and operations within any specific project are conducted as per the rules and will be guided towards the achievement of the objectives of an organization. As per the view of Miles (2017), multi-fiduciary stakeholder analysis is undertakenwhen all the selected stakeholders are accounted to be fiduciaries in an organization. It is well known that a fiduciary is an individual to whom control or organization's property is entrusted for the profit of another (Miles, 2017).

b) Analysis of the concept of stakeholder management in the context of project management
A project sponsor could be considered as an official in the company with the position to allocate possessions and implement the operations, who is considered to be a project stakeholder or partner (Xiaet al.,2018). The project manager, project team, and the administrators from different divisions in the company are stakeholders as well. It isimperative to distinguish all the partners in the project management. The number of associates that the project managers arrange with the assurances should have special skills to manage the operations during the entire project. Any sort of clash amid the stakeholders can create an adverse impact on the project outcome (Huemann, Eskerod&Ringhofer, 2016). For example, workers who are late while completing the tasks assigned to them might delay the overall completion time of the project. To control the matter, projectmanagers should direct authority over any of these people and prevent them from creating a mess (Eskerod& Larsen, 2018).

As evident in thestakeholder management assignment, it is the responsibility of the PM to understand these arguments and attempt to control them (Lehtinen,Aaltonen&Rajala, 2019). It is necessary to recognize and encounter with each of the important clients from the beginning while undertaking the project to understand their varying needs and limitations (Lehtinen,Aaltonen&Rajala, 2019). The PM is accountable for every key aspect taking place during the project. Normally, they are efficient at the effective management of different stakeholders such as the collaborators, sub-contractors, and providers (Derakhshan, Turner & Mancini, 2019). It is the responsibility of the PM to keep the stakeholders informed regarding the proceedings taking place in the project. The project managers possess sufficient knowledge regarding the crucial aspects such as high power-low interest, low power-high interest, low power-low interset, and high power-high interest amid the various stakeholders engaged in the project (Chung & Crawford, 2016).

c) Evaluation of the factors that influence the effectiveness of stakeholder management in planning and executing projects
The PM's vital role is to ensure that a task needs to reflecton and satisfy the requirements of stakeholders, which incorporates the end-clients, the creators, the contractual workers, and the support group (Park et al., 2017). Additionally, it is also dscussed in the stakeholder management assignment that every partner has intended prerequisites for the task, which gives rise to the key clashes with others. It is of utmost importance to delegate the roles cautiously keeping in mind that the PM must have the desired competency to and knowledge regarding the transparency to be maintained amid the various stakeholders in a project (Park et al., 2017). However, working in assembled situations has likewise changed the focal point of development. The principal factors influencing stakeholder management process includes employing a project manager with high competency, transparent evaluation skills, guaranteeing powerful correspondence amid the stakeholders, defining shared objectives and targets for the venture, and investigating the partners' needs and desires (Oppong, Chan &Dansoh, 2017).

Herein stakeholder management assignment, there are some general issues, which impact the efficiency of stakeholder management in any project. The first factor that influences the project planning and execution is the identification of stakeholder needs and concerns. As per Waghmare, Bhalerao&Wagh (2016), it has been reviewed stakeholder needs in a particular project should be identified before planning for better distribution of targets and works to the project management team. Lack of stakeholder needs identification could effect on the internal control and project deliverables in the later stages (Van Offenbeek, &Vos, 2016). It has been identified in the stakeholder management assignment that any project that needs to have an external stakeholder relationship for promotion and marketing purposes needs to identify the communication policies and benefits of the external stakeholders to manage both the project operations and provide facilities to the external stakeholders (Van Offenbeek, &Vos, 2016). According to El-Sawalhi&Hammad (2015), in construction management due to large numbers of stakeholder involvement in projects; it becomes important for the management to come up with an agreement for each stakeholder; otherwise any type of disagreement impact on the capability of the management team to produce and finish the project within the stipulated time and budget (Ninan, Mahalingam& Clegg, 2019).

d) Discussion of approach(es) to improve stakeholder management in projects
It is of paramount importance to prioritize the stakeholders according to the level of power and interest they hold in the project. It is the responsibility of the PM to figure out alternative methods to ensure that each of thestakeholders with different needs stays committed throughout the project completion (Eskerod& Larsen, 2018).Incorporating a stakeholder evaluation concentrated on reactions to change achieves a couple of key things. At first, the project supervisor willing to incorporate the change has conveyed the information and communicated the vision to make the stakeholders comprehend the ultimate goal of carrying out the project and the importance of having the change. Since a basic suspicion in change can play a crucial role in influencing the standpoint of the stakeholders, which may further lead to harm the project outcome needs to be considered by the project supervisor or manager on an urgent basis (Bourne, 2016).

On the other side, the stakeholder mapping approach plays a p[ivotal role in identifying both the external and internal stakeholders with their potentialities and competitiveness. It also helps the project supervisor in mapping whether the resources are available for the team to operate effectively in the future or not (Almutairiet al., 2019).The mitigation plan stated in the section of stakeholder management assignment helps in identifying the risks that the project is going to come across in due courses and how to mitigate them by informing the stakeholders regarding such uncertainties (Aaltonen&Kujala, 2016).With effective stakeholder communication and decision-making in place could help in developing the project ownership, credibility, and implement the mitigation plan viably.

e) What are some well-argued recommendations to project manager to enhance the effectiveness of stakeholder management presented in the stakeholder management assignment?
Considering the case scenario of stakeholder management assignment, it is stated that the use of force-field evaluation while scheduling the project tasks plays a crucial role in the effective management of the stakeholders by letting them know about the delegation of tasks has been done as per their potential. The project team is considered as the most significant part of the stakeholder management, as they are actively involved in completing the various tasks to generate the desired objective and achieve the project deliverables (Butt, A., Naaranoja&Savolainen, 2016). Additionally, when the partners' foresee the difficulties (and different dangers confronting the project) are caught in the power field outline, the board instrument can help situate the group moving towards the change obstruction in the six strategies to look for the change caught by Kotter and Schlesinger (Wentworth, Behson& Kelley, 2020). At a certain point, when the stakeholders are legitimately enabled to a place of noteworthy impact on project change results can severely harm the desired outcomes of the project, thus, a proper methodology needs to be incorporated and followed for boosting the reception of the change. Often applied as the last measure when everything else falls apart making it extremely difficult for achieving the desired project deliverables, this strategy includes deliberately restricting data to certain partners (Sunder, 2016).

3. Conclusion
From the above discussion on stakeholder management, initially; it has been identified herein stakeholder management assignment that stakeholder management theories have undergone changes depending on the circumstances and needs of different stakeholders. This study on stakeholder management assignmenthas been effective in identifying the current and general factors that could impact on stakeholder management and effectiveness of any project. Through the results of this discussion on stakeholder management assignment, it could be said that the core implementation of stakeholder management would be for achieving project success and effective management in future projects as well. Additionally, change management and stakeholder mapping have been underlined as effective approaches that project managers should practice in their companies.

Bibliography
Aaltonen, K., &Kujala, J. (2016).Towards an improved understanding of project stakeholder landscapes.Stakeholder management assignment International Journal of Project Management, 34(8), 1537-1552.

Almutairi, A., Collier, Z. A., Hendrickson, D., Palma-Oliveira, J. M., Polmateer, T. L., & Lambert, J. H. (2019).Stakeholder mapping and disruption scenarios with application to the resilience of a container port.Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 182, 219-232.

Bourne, L. (2016). Stakeholder relationship management: a maturity model for organisational implementation. CRC Press.

Butt, A., Naaranoja, M., &Savolainen, J. (2016).Project change stakeholder communication. International Journal of Project Management, 34(8), 1579-1595.

Chung, K. S. K., & Crawford, L. (2016).The role of social networks theory and methodology for project stakeholder management. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 226, 372-380.

Derakhshan, R., Turner, R., & Mancini, M. (2019). Project governance and stakeholders: a literature review. International Journal of Project Management, 37(1), 98-116.

El-Sawalhi, N. I., &Hammad, S. (2015). Factors affecting stakeholder management in construction projects in the Gaza Strip. International Journal of Construction Management, 15(2), 157-169.

Eskerod, P., & Larsen, T. (2018).Advancing project stakeholder analysis by the concept ‘shadows of the context’. Stakeholder management assignmentInternational Journal of Project Management, 36(1), 161-169.

Freudenreich, B., Lüdeke-Freund, F., &Schaltegger, S. (2019). A stakeholder theory perspective on business models: Value creation for sustainability. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-16.

Huemann, M., Eskerod, P., &Ringhofer, C. (2016). Rethink!: Project Stakeholder Management. Project Management Institute, Incorporated.

Lehtinen, J., Aaltonen, K., &Rajala, R. (2019). Stakeholder management in complex product systems: Practices and rationales for engagement and disengagement. Industrial marketing management, 79, 58-70.

Miles, S. (2017). Stakeholder theory classification: A theoretical and empirical evaluation of definitions. Journal of Business Ethics, 142(3), 437-459.

Minoja, M. (2012).Stakeholder management theory, firm strategy, and ambidexterity. Journal of Business Ethics, 109(1), 67-82.

Nguyen, T. S., Mohamed, S., &Panuwatwanich, K. (2018). Stakeholder Management in Complex Project: Review of Contemporary Literature. Journal of Engineering, Project & Production Management, 8(2).

Ninan, J., Mahalingam, A., & Clegg, S. (2019). External Stakeholder Management Strategies and Resources in Megaprojects: An Organizational Power Perspective. Stakeholder management assignmentProject Management Journal, 50(6), 625-640.

Oppong, G. D., Chan, A. P., &Dansoh, A. (2017). A review of stakeholder management performance attributes in construction projects. International Journal of Project Management, 35(6), 1037-1051.

Park, H., Kim, K., Kim, Y. W., & Kim, H. (2017). Stakeholder management in long-term complex megaconstruction projects: The Saemangeum Project. Journal of Management in Engineering, 33(4), 05017002.

Sunder M, V. (2016). Lean six sigma project management–a stakeholder management perspective. The TQM Journal, 28(1), 132-150.

Van Offenbeek, M. A., &Vos, J. F. (2016). An integrative framework for managing project issues across stakeholder groups. International Journal of Project Management, 34(1), 44-57.

Waghmare, Y. M., Bhalerao, N., &Wagh, S. (2016). Analysis of the factors affecting the stakeholder management process in building construction project. International Journal of Innovative Studies in Sciences and Engineering Technology (IJISSET), 2(7), 48-56.

Wentworth, D. K., Behson, S. J., & Kelley, C. L. (2020). Implementing a new student evaluation of teaching system using the Kotter change model. Studies in Higher Education, 45(3), 511-523.

Xia, N., Zou, P. X., Griffin, M. A., Wang, X., &Zhong, R. (2018). Towards integrating construction risk management and stakeholder management: A systematic literature review and future research agendas. Stakeholder management assignmentInternational Journal of Project Management, 36(5), 701-715.

PART 2
1. A brief introduction to EVM approach
Earned Value Management (EVM) is a strategy for incorporating degree, schedule, and assets for estimating project execution (Humphreys, 2016). EVM looks at the measure of work or exertion that is incorporated with what was earned and spent to decide whether the cost and timeratio is appropriate for the project or not. EVM permits project teams to comprehend the wellbeing and execution of the tasks allocated to them (Humphreys, 2016). Earned value is a procedure for checking the project execution dependent on the totaltime rate of completing the project (Moradi, Mousavi&Vahdani, 2017). This strategy permits the project supervisors to evaluate a task's advancement after some time and permit the project team to comprehend the proceeding and execution of the activities (Batselier&Vanhoucke,2017).

Application of earned value management data evaluation guides is considered as a general practice to assist managers in considering their previous performance and the upcoming performance criteria to finish the work within the allocated EAC and calculated completion time (Babar, Thaheem&Ayub, 2017).This concept is demonstrated below;

Figure 1: Calculation based on expenses and schedule performance (Source: Batselier&Vanhoucke,2017)

2. Justification of value creation in projects using EVM
Making arrangements for an information distribution center is quite a significant advancement in utilizing the EVM in order to quantify the execution of the project. Since considerable detail must be available on the schedule to utilize EVM appropriately, building up a project plan might turn out to be the most dif?cult task (Fleming &Koppelman, 2016). The chart shows EVM measurements utilizing the three essential ideas of organized, practiced, and genuine work, which is incorporated proportions of time (schedule) and expenses (Kshirsagar&Konnur, 2017).

Figure 2: EVM concepts in data warehouse project
(Source: Thiele, Ryan &Abbasi, 2018)

The incorporation of degree, schedule, and the cost end into a standard arrangement and thus, providing a piece of sound evidence to issue identi?cation, issue investigation, and change control (Thiele, Ryan &Abbasi, 2018). EVM results can be effectively imparted to upper administration for dynamic purposes. ?

3. Limitations of EVM
At times, it has been seen in the stakeholder management assignmentthat while a project management group is concentrating on Earned Value Management, discussions can emerge on the best scientific tools to use in project management alongside the following procedure with varying perspectives on the project to be adopted. A few methods incorporate the financial plan and finishing, others incorporate the cost fluctuation or even the gauge at consummation (Ballesteros-Pérez&Elamrousy, 2018). These are a couple of endeavours EVM can be utilized to follow.

The EV capacitiesexpose that a variationoccurs during the project proceedings, and this could locate the area of the difference, however, this does notoffer correctiveaction. Earned Value Management must not be used on nonstop activities. It works the finest on simple projects. Receiving into the dedicated tasks or project activities with numerous levels could ensure the PM permitted the activity to become wrecked in the refinements (Nizam&Elshannaway, 2019). EVM does not check the wholelevel of measuringthe project and might not exactly articulate what is fundamental for a task to be accomplished with explicit effectiveness. With the precise vision, any project could be on schedule and completed within the estimated budget, making it a success (Chen, Chen & Lin, 2016).

Difficulties in dismantlingthe EVM indicators take place due to the situations taking place with delays in the completion of the activities. Considering this, a precise command in the growth and support of the schedule is required. At this point, the extent to which the expenditure plan and the schedule are changed influences the project activities being carried out by the team (Mishakovaet al., 2016). In the circumstance depicted, the EV Method ought to be viewed rather as reciprocal and strong upon different techniques, just as an effective method of engineered introduction of information, for instance, to the board (Baumannet al., 2014). ?

4. Bibliography

Babar, S., Thaheem, M. J., &Ayub, B. (2017). Estimated cost at completion: Integrating risk into earned value management. Stakeholder management assignmentJournal of Construction Engineering and Management, 143(3), 04016104.

Ballesteros-Pérez, P. A. B. L. O., &Elamrousy, K. M. (2018).On the limitations of the Earned Value Management technique to anticipate project delays. EURO MED SEC, 1-6.

Batselier, J., &Vanhoucke, M. (2017). Improving project forecast accuracy by integrating earned value management with exponential smoothing and reference class forecasting. International journal of project management, 35(1), 28-43.

Baumann, T., Dziadosz, A., Rejment, M., &Kapli?ski, O. (2014).Range of aplication and limitations of the earned value method in construction project estimation. CzasopismoTechniczne, 2014(BudownictwoZeszyt 2-B (6) 2014), 65-72.

Chen, H. L., Chen, W. T., & Lin, Y. L. (2016). Earned value project management: Improving the predictive power of planned value. International Journal of Project Management, 34(1), 22-29.

Fleming, Q. W., &Koppelman, J. M. (2016, December).Earned value project management. Project Management Institute.

Humphreys, G. (2016). Basic Concepts of Earned Value Management (EVM), Humphreys & Associates. Recovered in 6th July.

Kshirsagar, A. B., &Konnur, B. A. (2017). Earned Value Management Tool for Controlling Project Duration and Budgeted Cost. Stakeholder management assignmentInternational Journal of Engineering Technology Science and Research 1275, 1280.

Mishakova, A., Vakhrushkina, A., Murgul, V., &Sazonova, T. (2016). Project control based on a mutual application of pert and earned value management methods. Procedia engineering, 165, 1812-1817.

Moradi, N., Mousavi, S. M., &Vahdani, B. (2017).An earned value model with risk analysis for project management under uncertain conditions. Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems, 32(1), 97-113.

Nizam, A., &Elshannaway, A. (2019).Review of Earned Value Management (EVM) Methodology, its Limitations, and Applicable Extensions. Journal of Management & Engineering Integration, 12(1), 59-70.

Thiele, B., Ryan, M., &Abbasi, A. (2018). On the use of a standardised data set to support research on earned value and earned schedule management techniques. In Systems Engineering Test and Evaluation Conference 2018: Unlocking the Future Through Systems Engineering: SETE 2018 (p. 543). Stakeholder management assignmentEngineers Australia.