One of the first steps to take when initiating a project is to identify the stakeholders. These are all of the folks who care about the project. There are always some obvious stakeholders:

• the project sponsors (the funders)
• the project team
• the customers
• the end-users

But there are often stakeholders who aren’t so easily identifiable. For example,

• government
• the local community
• the media
• vendors
• suppliers
• IT support staff
• opponents

We take the time to identify the stakeholders so that we have a hope of building something that they will accept. The task of listing the stakeholders should be done as a brainstorming exercise with the project team, and the list should be shared widely in order to validate it. Try to have a conversation with a representative of each stakeholder group. Describe the project objectives and note any objections or strong opinions.

Project opponents are an interesting class of stakeholder. On many projects there is a temptation to pretend that opponents don’t exist, or worse, that their opinions don’t matter. Nothing could be further from the truth. Project opponents provide valuable information about the potential problems associated with the project. Even better, if you can win over a project opponent you often end up with someone who’s especially committed to the project’s success.