Business analysts use stakeholder lists to help analyze stakeholders and their attributes.
It is used to spot all potential sources of requirements so that solutions made involving stakeholder engagement, collaboration, and communication are the best options for the stakeholder and for the success of the initiative.
Stakeholder analysis requires identifying the stakeholders that share a common business need. It analyzes, records and examines the different attributes of the identified stakeholders.
The types of stakeholder characteristics that are worth identifying and analyzing include the following:
- The level of authority within the organization.
- The attitudes toward the change.
- The attitudes the business analysis work.
- The level of executive authority.
When analyzing stakeholders, the business analysts should use one or more techniques to extract a list of stakeholders and analyze them.
Stakeholder lists, maps, and personas are three tools that can be used when managing this work.
Stakeholder mapping has some components which include the following:
1 Stakeholder lists: A business analyst can use a number of techniques to create a stakeholder list. Brainstorming and interviews are two of the common techniques that are used.
The produced stakeholder list is important to both the stakeholder analysis activities and any planning work that the business analyst performs for elicitation, collaboration, and communication.
It is important to have a complete stakeholder list to ensure that important stakeholder or stakeholder groups have not been missed. Missed stakeholders could lead to missed requirements.
2. Stakeholder map: Stakeholder maps are diagrams that portray the relationship of stakeholders to each other and the solution.
There are many types of stakeholder maps, which include:
- Stakeholder matrix: this is a map of the stakeholder influence level against the stakeholder interest level.
- Onion diagram: this is used to show how involved the stakeholders are with the solution, which stakeholders will participate in a business process, which are part of the larger organization, and which are outside the organization.
The business analyst usually starts their stakeholder analysis by examining the suggested scope of the solution and then analyzing which groups will be
impacted.
A stakeholder’s position on the matrix can change due to organizational, environmental, or requirement scope changes. Due to these possible changes, stakeholder analysis is deemed iterative and assessed frequently by the business analyst.
The sectors in the stakeholder matrix are:
• High influence/high impact: these stakeholders are crucial players in the
change effort. The business analyst should center their efforts and connect with this group regularly.
• High Influence/low impact: these stakeholders have needs that should be
met. The business analyst should consult with them, while also attempting increase their interest level in the change activity.
• Low influence/high impact: these stakeholders are supporters of the change effort. The business analyst should connect with this group for their input and show interest in their needs.
• Low Influence/low impact: these stakeholders can be kept informed using
general communications channels. They could potentially be moved into the
goodwill ambassador quadrant, which can help gain additional support.
3 Responsibility (RACI) Matrix: another type of stakeholder matrix is the responsibility (RACI) matrix. RACI stands for the four types of authority that a stakeholder may hold in the initiative and these are: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed.
When completing a RACI matrix, it is important to ensure that all stakeholders or stakeholder groups have been identified. Additional analysis is then managed to specify the level of responsibility expected from each stakeholder and/or group.
RACI stands for the following:
Responsible (R): these are the people who will be carrying out the work on the task.
Accountable (A): this person is held accountable for the successful completion of the task and the decision making. Only one stakeholder receives this assignment.
Consulted (C): these are the people in the stakeholder or stakeholder group who will be asked to provide information about the task. This task is often provided to the subject matter experts (SMEs).
Informed (I): this stakeholder or stakeholder group are kept up to date on the task and advised of its outcome. Informed is different from consulted because with the Informed the communication is one-way i.e. business analyst to stakeholder but with consulted the communication is both ways i.e. business analyst to stakeholder and vise versa.
4 Personas: A persona is described as a fictional character that demonstrates the way an end user usually interacts with a product. Personas are useful when there is a wish to understand the needs held by a group of users.
Although the user groups are fictional, they are meant to represent actual users. Research is used to understand the user group, and the personas are then developed based upon knowledge rather than opinion.
A number of elicitation techniques can be used to manage this research. Interviews and surveys/questionnaires are two techniques that are used to elicit this information. The persona is written in a story form and centers on providing insight into the goals of the group.
This allows the reader to see the story from the stakeholder group viewpoint. Personas help bring the user to life, which in turn makes the needs feel real to those who design and construct solutions.
Stakeholder mapping has its strengths and limitations which includes:
Strengths
• It identifies certain people who must be engaged in requirements elicitation activities.
• It helps the business analyst to plan the collaboration, communication, and facilitation activities which is used to engage all stakeholder groups.
• It is useful in understanding changes in the affected groups over time.
Limitations
• Business analysts who are repeatedly working with the same teams may not use the stakeholder analysis and management technique because they believe that there is minimal change in their respective groups.
• Evaluating information about a particular stakeholder representative, such as influence and interest, can be complicated and may be politically risky.