Quiz Rápido - Marzo 2010

By Barbee Davis, MA, PHR, PMP

My newest project involves 25 department managers to coordinate and please. Each one has very specialized interests and doesn’t want to come to every project meeting. How do I deal with this large, opinionated stakeholder team?

1. Pick three managers who usually agree with you and set them up them up as stakeholder representatives to attend team meetings.
2. Find a way to ask only the department managers who have a primary interest in a feature or function to come to meetings regarding that item.
3. Every department manager should be at every meeting. That is what they are paid to do.
4. Present them with a finished project as a surprise. They will be pleased you didn’t waste their time by involving them.

Answer: B. Find a way to ask only the department managers who have a primary interest in a feature or function to come to meetings regarding that item.

Most project management training and literature uses simple examples of a project with only a few stakeholders. You are taught to prepare a document titled Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) to clearly define who is to do project work or approve it. You know to prepare a Communication Management Plan to note who to contact with project news.

But little is said about the value of also creating a Requirements Traceability Matrix.

This shows in more detail which stakeholder has a primary interest in each feature, function, or output of your project. When your project involves large numbers of stakeholders, each with different needs and goals for the project, you will want to be able to identify which stakeholder has the most connection to each feature or function.

For example, say you need to alter a portion of the final project deliverable. You can now assemble a sub-group of stakeholders who are the most affected by the change. They can look at your suggested revisions and give you critical input as to how this would enhance or deter the functionality of the end product for their department.

Stakeholders from the production floor can tell you if your proposed idea would require retooling machinery, while those from testing can say if it would still meet government or International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards. People from sales can tell you how it will now compare to competitive products, but those from Information Technology (IT) are best qualified to decide if it would be compatible with existing systems.

However, only those with pertinent knowledge about this specific feature or function should have a vote.

How to Create a Requirements Traceability Matrix

Hold a meeting with all of the stakeholders and have the project features and functions listed down the left column of the matrix. Individual names are along the top. Now allow each person to place up to three “X”s on the chart to indicate the items most important to them. This helps people truly consider what is crucial to the business of their department and keeps them from just marking everything.

Allow each person to tell why these features or functions are important to their department. This may be an eye-opener for others who had no idea how the process flow for this item worked between departments.

After the first round, stakeholders can make a case to justify being a primary interested party (X) on other project items. Be sure to include representatives from training, advertising, sales, purchasing and IT, as they are typically working on projects of their own in parallel with your development work.

How do you use the results? If there are features or functions no one chooses, maybe those can be eliminated from the beginning.

When a change is planned, rather than assembling the large team, just check with the primary managers affected. To cut down on time and cost, when corresponding about these small issues only include the sub-team. Of course, all major project progress and news will continue to go to everyone designated on the Communications Management Plan, and major changes to cost and requirements will go through your change control board.

Save yourself from creating unnecessary features and functions, and from creating a project result that doesn’t really provide value by using a Requirements Traceability Matrix.