Project Crisis Control: Managing Stakeholder involvement when things go wrong

Published on 11 January 2023

Photo by Evgeniy Smersh

When a project is running behind schedule, it can be tempting to bring in multiple stakeholders in an effort to speed things up. However, getting too many people involved can be detrimental to the project’s success.

Having too many stakeholders can lead to conflicting direction and scope creep, causing delays and added complexity. Whilst generally everyone will have the best intentions to help, the risk of adding too many opinions to the mix will ultimately slow things down.

It also makes communication and information sharing more challenging, taking more time and resource to keep everyone up-to-date. An example of this is when senior stakeholders ask to join the daily standups. The purpose of this meeting is for the delivery team to update each other, highlight any blockers and then get on with their work. When more people get involved, they risk slowing progress by:

  • Distracting from the purpose of the meeting
  • Digging into tasks and details that have already been worked on an approved
  • Making the delivery team feel more stressed about the work they are already delayed on

It can become an absolute moshpit, with everyone leaving the standup feeling like they’ve wasted time and not got out of it what they needed.

So what can you do as a Project Manager?

Project managers should aim to keep the number of stakeholders to a minimum, clearly outlining each person’s role and their impact on the project’s goals and timelines (I recommend using a RACI Matrix for this).

  • Set clear expectations around updates and communications - what time/cadence they will be, and what they will include. This benefits for a couple of reasons; (a) You keep the delivery team focused and undistracted, and (b) you enable the senior stakeholders to manage expectations of the wider audience (clients, customers, etc) that may not be visible to you at the delivery level
  • Define priorities for what’s being delivered in what order. Be realistic and move any non-critical items to the backlog (you can always come back to them).
  • Use relevant stakeholders to support you with unblocking issues or dependencies; they may have the power to get things moving that you don’t!

This will ensure that everyone is aligned and avoid conflicting direction and scope creep; allowing the delivery team to focus on getting the work done as efficiently as possible, and using the stakeholders as effectively as possible to get the project back on track or over the line.

About the author: Jon Munson

As a Digital Delivery and Operations Consultant, I have honed my skills while working with some of the most dynamic and innovative digital agencies in the industry. I've had the opportunity to work with teams that are punching well above their weight, and I understand the unique challenges they need to overcome.

I’ve worked as a developer, project manager, producer, head of operations and delivery lead. Now it’s time for me to help teams like yours grow and win!



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