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If you look at Table 1-1 on p. 556 of the PMBOK® Guide, you will see a map of all the project management process groups and knowledge areas.

The five process groups in project management are:  initiating, planning, executing, monitoring & controlling, and closing.    Of all the ten knowledge areas, stakeholder management has the second largest “spread” in terms of the number of process groups it covers.   It has a process in each of the process groups EXCEPT for closing.   Only the integration knowledge area has a larger spread, with a process in all five process groups.

Process 13.4 is in the monitoring & controlling process group, but it’s not referred to as “control stakeholder engagement.”   Some of the processes in that group are referred to with the term “control”, such as “control scope”, “control schedule”, and “control costs.”   However, when it comes to communications, stakeholders and risk management, the processes in the monitoring & controlling are referred to as “monitor” rather than “control.”   This is because when you are dealing with people (communications and stakeholder management) or events (risk management), you are dealing with factors for the most part outside of your control.    However, at least with people, as opposed to events, you can engage with them and try to influence their behavior.

So in this process, you have Monitor Stakeholder Engagement, which means monitoring the project stakeholder relationships that you have been maintaining in the previous process 13.3 Manage Stakeholder Engagement.   The strategies for engaging stakeholders that you have been using up to this point are reviewed, and modified if necessary in this process.

Here are the inputs to this process:

13.4.1  Monitor Stakeholder Engagement:  Inputs

13.4.1.1  Project Management Plan

Of course the most important component of the overall project management plan for this process is the

• Stakeholder management plan–this gives guidelines and information on how to do all of the other processes in the stakeholder management knowledge area, including this managing and monitoring stakeholder needs and expectations.

The other relevant components that may be inputs to this process are:

• Resource management plan–for methods for management of team members (yes, team members are considered stakeholders in the project)
• Communications engagement plan–defines the plans and strategies for communication to the project’s stakeholders.

13.4.1.2  Project Documents

• Issue log–stakeholder concerns are documented in the issue log, as well as any assigned action items associated with managing the issue.
• Lessons learned register–as lessons are learned in the course of managing stakeholder engagement, they can be be applied to later phases in the project to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of this process.
• Project communications–communications that have been previous distributed to stakeholders as defined in both the communications and stakeholder management plans.
• Risk register–identifies risks for the project, including those related to stakeholder engagement.
• Stakeholder register–provides the list of project stakeholders and any information needed to execute the stakeholder engagement plan.

13.4.1.3  Work Performance Data

In particular, which stakeholders are currently supportive of the project, vs. neutral or resistant.

13.3.1.4  Enterprise Environmental Factors

Among those factors listed on p. 533 of the PMBOK® Guide, the ones that are the most important are:

• Organizational culture, political climate, and governance structure of the organization
• Personnel administration policies
• Stakeholder risk thresholds
• Established communication channels

13.3.1.5  Organizational Process Assets

Among those assets listed on p. 533 of the PMBOK® Guide, the ones that are the most important are:

• Corporate policies and procedures for social media
• Corporate policies and procedures for issue, risk, change and data management
• Organizational communications requirements

With these inputs, we can now use the tools and techniques of this process, which are covered in the next post.

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