What the heck is stakeholder management?!

"The degree of success of a project is the combined degree of satisfaction of all stakeholders." 

(Association for Project Management)

There's much debate about what exactly the abstract concept of stakeholder management actually constitutes.

Mostly, as I experienced in project management practice, stakeholder management is associated to day to day unconscious shaping of communication towards people involved in the project or project result.

It appears to be constituted mainly synonymously to expectation management;


“Stakeholder management is the process of managing the expectation of anyone that has an interest in a project or will be effected by its deliverables or outputs,” as Project Smart defines it.

The Association for Project Management defines stakeholder management more from a more instrumental perspective, as 

"the systematic identification, analysis and planning of actions to communicate with, negiotiate with and influence stakeholders."

This definition is one of the most comprehensive description found in literature; it emphasizes the systematic nature of the processes and the focus on potential to influence the stakeholder environment of a project.

Linking this definition to the definition of a project's success, stresses the importance of embedding stakeholder management in daily project management routines.

In our research, we also consider stakeholder management as a continuous, embedded process of identification, analysis, prioritization and engagement of stakeholders relevant for the project or its results, by planning focussed activities. We call this the iterative IAPEM cycle of stakeholder management, as visualized below.