Identifying and analysing stakeholders

The first stakeholder list for a city’s electric-bus depot had five names, all of them people who pay for the depot or build it. The finished register has 14, and two of the nine it gained are the kind teams find too late: the mechanics whose diesel skills the depot retires, and the inspector who must inspect the chargers before they are switched on.

You will search for stakeholders group by group, record them in a register, sort them with a power-interest grid and with the salience model, see exactly where the two models disagree on the same list, and plan how far to engage each group.

Stakeholders include everyone the work affects, not only who pays

The Kanban Guide’s definition gives three tests in one line: a stakeholderstakeholder: Any person, group or organisation responsible for, interested in or affected by a piece of work or what it produces, whether or not they asked to be involved. is any person, group or organisation responsible for, interested in or affected by the work and what it produces. The first list of the depot passed only the first test. The other two bring in people who never asked to be involved, such as residents who will hear chargers at night.

A search by group finds them faster than a brainstorm. Ask who decides and pays, who will run the result, who builds and supplies it, who must permit or inspect it, who lives or travels near it, and who competes with it. Step through that search for the depot:

The search turned up both of the stakeholders the first list missed. The mechanics are users of the old system, and the depot changes their work completely. The inspector holds a power that is used only once, at the end, which is exactly why nobody thinks of it early.

Each name goes into a stakeholder registerstakeholder register: The project's list of its stakeholders with what each holds at stake, their power and interest, and how engaged they are now and need to be; it is kept factual and revisited at every milestone.: who they are, what they hold at stake, how much power and interest they have, and, later in this lesson, how engaged they are now and need to be. PMI’s 2026 examination outline lists identifying and analysing stakeholders as the first steps of its task “Engage stakeholders”.

A power-interest grid turns a register into four approaches

With 14 names, the team needs to decide how much effort each one gets. The common tool is the power-interest gridpower-interest grid: A two-by-two chart that places stakeholders by their power over the project and their interest in it, giving four approaches: manage closely, keep satisfied, keep informed and monitor.: score each stakeholder’s power, how far they could stop or reshape the project, and their interest, how strongly the outcome affects them or matters to them. This program holds the depot’s register with the team’s scores from 1 to 5 and places each stakeholder in a quadrant, with 3 or more counting as high:

"""A stakeholder register for an invented municipal e-bus depot, and the power-interest grid it gives.

Power is how far a stakeholder can stop or reshape the project, interest how strongly the outcome affects them or
matters to them, each scored from 1 to 5 by the project team. A score of 3 or more counts as high. The four quadrants
take the usual approaches: manage closely, keep satisfied, keep informed and monitor.
"""

REGISTER = [
    # name, what they hold at stake, power, interest
    ("Municipal commissioner", "sponsor: answers for the depot's budget", 5, 4),
    ("State transport department", "part-funds the buses", 5, 3),
    ("City bus company", "will run the depot and the buses", 4, 5),
    ("Electricity distribution company", "must connect the chargers", 4, 2),
    ("Electrical inspector", "chargers stay off until inspected", 5, 1),
    ("Fire department", "battery fire safety of the depot", 4, 1),
    ("Traffic police", "diversions while the depot is built", 3, 1),
    ("Bus manufacturer", "delivers 40 buses under contract", 3, 4),
    ("Drivers' union", "shifts and training for drivers", 3, 5),
    ("Private bus operators' association", "fears losing routes", 3, 3),
    ("Depot mechanics", "their diesel skills stop being used", 2, 5),
    ("Residents' association", "night charging noise and lorries", 2, 4),
    ("Daily commuters", "quieter, cleaner buses", 1, 3),
    ("Shopkeepers on the depot road", "parking while it is built", 1, 2),
]

QUADRANTS = {
    (True, True): "Manage closely (high power, high interest)",
    (True, False): "Keep satisfied (high power, low interest)",
    (False, True): "Keep informed (low power, high interest)",
    (False, False): "Monitor (low power, low interest)",
}

print(f"{'Stakeholder':<36}{'Power':>6}{'Interest':>9}  At stake")
for name, stake, power, interest in REGISTER:
    print(f"{name:<36}{power:>6}{interest:>9}  {stake}")

print()
for key, title in QUADRANTS.items():
    members = [name for name, _, power, interest in REGISTER if (power >= 3, interest >= 3) == key]
    print(f"{title}: {len(members)}")
    for name in members:
        print(f"  {name}")

Stakeholder                          Power Interest  At stake
Municipal commissioner                   5        4  sponsor: answers for the depot's budget
State transport department               5        3  part-funds the buses
City bus company                         4        5  will run the depot and the buses
Electricity distribution company         4        2  must connect the chargers
Electrical inspector                     5        1  chargers stay off until inspected
Fire department                          4        1  battery fire safety of the depot
Traffic police                           3        1  diversions while the depot is built
Bus manufacturer                         3        4  delivers 40 buses under contract
Drivers' union                           3        5  shifts and training for drivers
Private bus operators' association       3        3  fears losing routes
Depot mechanics                          2        5  their diesel skills stop being used
Residents' association                   2        4  night charging noise and lorries
Daily commuters                          1        3  quieter, cleaner buses
Shopkeepers on the depot road            1        2  parking while it is built

Manage closely (high power, high interest): 6
  Municipal commissioner
  State transport department
  City bus company
  Bus manufacturer
  Drivers' union
  Private bus operators' association
Keep satisfied (high power, low interest): 4
  Electricity distribution company
  Electrical inspector
  Fire department
  Traffic police
Keep informed (low power, high interest): 3
  Depot mechanics
  Residents' association
  Daily commuters
Monitor (low power, low interest): 1
  Shopkeepers on the depot road

Six stakeholders land in “manage closely”, four in “keep satisfied”, three in “keep informed” and one, the shopkeepers, in “monitor”. Bryson’s survey of stakeholder analysis techniques describes the same grid and names the four groups players, context setters, subjects and the crowd. The names differ, but the advice is the same: spend the most effort where power and interest are both high.

Each quadrant implies a different kind of contact. Answer the questions in the figure for a stakeholder of your own and see which approaches still fit; the third question is one the grid itself never asks:

The grid is a snapshot of judgements. Scores move when people change jobs, when a decision lands on someone’s desk or when a protest starts, so the register is revisited at every milestone, not filled in once.

The salience model adds legitimacy and urgency to power

The grid has two axes; Mitchell, Agle and Wood’s salience model, published in 1997, has three yes-or-no attributes. Power: can the stakeholder impose its will on the project? Legitimacy: is its claim proper, by law, contract or accepted norms? Urgency: does the claim demand attention now? A stakeholder with all three is definitive; the salience modelsalience model: Mitchell, Agle and Wood's model that classes stakeholders by three attributes, power, legitimacy and urgency; a stakeholder with all three is called definitive. names seven classes in all, from dormant (power only) to definitive. The program below classes the same 14 stakeholders and lists every place where the two models disagree:

"""The same 14 stakeholders of the invented e-bus depot, classed by the salience model, and where it disagrees with the
power-interest grid.

The salience model (Mitchell, Agle and Wood, 1997) asks three yes-or-no questions: does the stakeholder have power to
impose its will on the project, a legitimate claim, and a claim that is urgent now? The seven classes are the
combinations: dormant, discretionary and demanding have one attribute; dominant, dangerous and dependent have two;
definitive stakeholders have all three. The grid's quadrant comes from the register's scores (3 or more is high).
"""

# name, power score, interest score (the register's), then power, legitimacy, urgency (the salience questions)
STAKEHOLDERS = [
    ("Municipal commissioner", 5, 4, True, True, True),
    ("State transport department", 5, 3, True, True, False),
    ("City bus company", 4, 5, True, True, True),
    ("Electricity distribution company", 4, 2, True, True, False),
    ("Electrical inspector", 5, 1, True, True, False),
    ("Fire department", 4, 1, True, True, False),
    ("Traffic police", 3, 1, True, True, False),
    ("Bus manufacturer", 3, 4, True, True, False),
    ("Drivers' union", 3, 5, True, True, True),
    ("Private bus operators' association", 3, 3, True, False, True),
    ("Depot mechanics", 2, 5, False, True, True),
    ("Residents' association", 2, 4, False, True, True),
    ("Daily commuters", 1, 3, False, True, False),
    ("Shopkeepers on the depot road", 1, 2, False, True, False),
]

CLASSES = {
    (True, False, False): "dormant (power only)",
    (False, True, False): "discretionary (legitimacy only)",
    (False, False, True): "demanding (urgency only)",
    (True, True, False): "dominant (power, legitimacy)",
    (True, False, True): "dangerous (power, urgency)",
    (False, True, True): "dependent (legitimacy, urgency)",
    (True, True, True): "definitive (power, legitimacy, urgency)",
}
QUADRANT = {(True, True): "manage closely", (True, False): "keep satisfied",
            (False, True): "keep informed", (False, False): "monitor"}

print("Salience classes")
for attributes, title in CLASSES.items():
    members = [s[0] for s in STAKEHOLDERS if tuple(s[3:]) == attributes]
    print(f"  {title}: {len(members)}")
    for name in members:
        print(f"    {name}")

print("Where the grid and the salience model disagree")
for name, power_score, interest_score, power, legitimate, urgent in STAKEHOLDERS:
    quadrant = QUADRANT[(power_score >= 3, interest_score >= 3)]
    if quadrant == "manage closely" and not legitimate:
        print(f"  {name}: the grid says {quadrant}, but its claim is not legitimate")
    if quadrant in ("keep informed", "monitor") and urgent:
        print(f"  {name}: the grid says {quadrant}, but its claim is urgent")

Salience classes
  dormant (power only): 0
  discretionary (legitimacy only): 2
    Daily commuters
    Shopkeepers on the depot road
  demanding (urgency only): 0
  dominant (power, legitimacy): 6
    State transport department
    Electricity distribution company
    Electrical inspector
    Fire department
    Traffic police
    Bus manufacturer
  dangerous (power, urgency): 1
    Private bus operators' association
  dependent (legitimacy, urgency): 2
    Depot mechanics
    Residents' association
  definitive (power, legitimacy, urgency): 3
    Municipal commissioner
    City bus company
    Drivers' union
Where the grid and the salience model disagree
  Private bus operators' association: the grid says manage closely, but its claim is not legitimate
  Depot mechanics: the grid says keep informed, but its claim is urgent
  Residents' association: the grid says keep informed, but its claim is urgent

Three disagreements come out. The private operators’ association lands in “manage closely” on the grid, beside the sponsor, yet its claim is not legitimate, which makes it dangerous in the model’s terms: engage it so that it cannot disrupt the work, but give it no part in decisions. The mechanics and the residents sit in “keep informed”, yet their claims are legitimate and urgent, which makes them dependent: they need someone with power to act for them, the bus company for the mechanics’ retraining and the commissioner for the residents’ noise limits, and they need an answer now rather than a newsletter.

Engagement is planned as the gap between now and what the work needs

Knowing who matters is half the job; the other half is moving them. A simple five-level scale records how engaged each stakeholder is now and how engaged the project needs them to be: unaware, resistant, neutral, supportive and leading. PMI’s outline makes carrying out such an engagement plan part of the same task. Here are five of the depot’s stakeholders, with the action that closes each gap:

The mechanics start as resistant because the depot threatens their skills, which a retraining plan addresses. The commissioner needs to move from supportive to leading, because residents trust a public answer more than a notice.

A register holds information about named people, so it needs the same care as any other personal data: collect only what the engagement needs, and keep it where only the project’s leads can open it.

Practise: registers, grids and gaps

The questions bring stakeholders from other projects: a hospital, a factory and a software rollout. Your first answer to each counts towards that idea’s level, and you may try again as often as you like:

Interview questions

Warm-up (fresher to 2–5 years): what does a power-interest grid tell you, and what does it leave out?

A power-interest grid places each stakeholder by how far they could stop or reshape the project and by how strongly the outcome affects them, giving four approaches: manage closely, keep satisfied, keep informed and monitor. It tells you where to spend engagement effort. It leaves out whether a stakeholder’s claim is legitimate and whether it is urgent, which is why the salience model adds those two attributes. It is also a snapshot of judgements: scores change when people move, decisions land or a protest starts, so the grid must be revisited at every milestone rather than filled in once.

Two harder questions follow, about a group that was never consulted and a powerful stakeholder who stays away. Work out your answer before you open each first step:

Key takeaways

• Stakeholders are everyone responsible for, interested in or affected by the work, and a search by group, from who pays to who competes, finds the ones a first list misses.
• A power-interest grid scores power and interest to share out effort among four approaches, and it must be revisited as people and decisions change.
• The salience model adds legitimacy and urgency to power, and where it disagrees with the grid, that stakeholder needs a second look.
• Engagement is planned as the gap between each stakeholder’s level now and the level the work needs, recorded in a factual register that few people can read.