Abstract: This blog post highlights the importance of a stakeholder analysis and provides a practical introduction to managing the expectations of internal stakeholders in an S/4HANA project.
ERP implementation projects are often confronted with internal resistance very quickly during the course of the project. This is usually not only due to the fact that many parts of the affected organizations are afraid of the upcoming changes that accompany such a project. Rather, it is often also due to the fact that not all of the interest groups affected by the project – the so-called stakeholders – were “picked up” at all and therefore feel “taken along”. Resistance is often created precisely because individual stakeholders are disappointed because they had a different expectation than what then occurred.
THE STRUCTURED STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
This topic can be addressed and solved relatively easily and professionally within the framework of a structured stakeholder analysis. The procedure is as follows:
1. Identification of stakeholder groups, i.e. the affected parts of the organization, management areas, functions, departments, locations, but also works councils and, if necessary, other internal stakeholders
2. Selection of the representatives (usually the responsible managers) of the individual stakeholder groups; the extent to which the structure must go down to the team level or whether it is sufficient to question the responsible managing director depends very much on the degree of involvement and homogeneity of the respective organisation or stakeholder group.
3. Creating a template for the stakeholder survey. The following questions have proven themselves from my point of view:
A. What are your three most important expectations of the project result (with prioritisation of one to three), how are these measured in each case (key figure?), what is the target figure (key figure) and by when should it be achieved?
B. What are your three most important expectations regarding project implementation (with prioritization of one to three), how are these measured in each case (key figure?), what is the target figure (key figure)?
4. Invitation (with dispatch of the template) and interviews with all stakeholders by the project management. The latter should also be prepared to be able to present the project to the respective stakeholder in this context (surprisingly, I have noticed time and again that important stakeholder groups were often not even aware of the projects that massively affected them). The best thing to do is to have the respective stakeholder briefly explain the project to you in order to determine to what extent it has arrived in that part of the organisation.
THE TRANSPARENT DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT OBJECTIVES
The results of all interviews are summarized in a “stakeholder expectation matrix” and form part of the description of the project objective in the project manual and are therefore transparent for all project participants. Identified, contradictory expectations must of course be resolved. For each entry in the expectation matrix, it has also proven successful to name a member of the project team who will ensure that this point is reached or adhered to – in other words, who will virtually sponsor the project.
I plan to provide tools like interview templates, expectation matrix and their application in the context of PodCasts and to explain them in detail. If you don’t want to or can’t wait for this, feel free to write to me and we will surely find a faster, individual way for you.