In the previous section, we discussed identifying, categorizing, prioritizing, and recording your stakeholders. Now we're going to discuss how to plan your engagement with those stakeholders. In doing so, you need to look at the places, that you can gather information to help in this process. As always, review your project management plan. It will remind you of any other work required, how many people you need, and what the completed project should look like. Look at your stakeholder register. You just create this to help organize your stakeholders. Also refer to your risk management plan. And, as always, consider the organizational, and any external factors that may influence how you manage the interactions with your stakeholders. This could be policies, procedures, or protocols. In short, look at anything that might impact the engagement. When developing your plan to engage your stakeholders, seek the input of other project managers or experts, to help you determine the level of engagement necessary to keep your stakeholders informed and committed to the project throughout the process. Talk to identified key stakeholders, and asked them what they're looking for during the process, or during the project. And don't be afraid to reach out to people outside the organization, for advice on how to manage your stakeholders appropriately. The best way to do this is to meet with them either in person or through other means. Basically, you need to do your homework. What are some of the tools and techniques you can use to help you through this process? First, you should gather data on your stakeholders, either through interviews. The interviews I mentioned earlier, what are your questionnaires and surveys. This will help you understand their politics, power structures in the organization, as well as the environment and culture of the organization. And will help you understand each stakeholder, and allow you to do a better analysis. Now, look at what the current engagement level of the stakeholders are. Are they excited about the project? Or is this one of many projects that they have going on? It's important to determine how involved the stakeholder wants to be during this project. This will help you manage their expectations. What does the current engagement level of your stakeholders? How does the desired planned engagement level compare to the current level? Is what you're doing now enough or does the level need to be changed? After assessing this, you should classify each stakeholders engagement level, and how that will impact your communications with them during the project. Some examples of stakeholder engagement are; Unaware, they don't know anything about your project or the impact, resistant, they are aware and resistant to change, neutral, they are aware but are neither supportive nor are resistant, leading, this person is fully aware of the project and is actively engaged in the process, and supportive. This person is aware of the project and supports it, and the impacts it will ultimately have on the organization. After identifying the level of engagement of each stakeholder helps you create a Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix. It's a list of stakeholders and their level of engagement. It's a simple tool that allows you to manage the amount of time, and level of specificity of information you share with each person or group. The Stakeholder Engagement Matrix represents the current engagement level of each stakeholder. And a D, indicates the level that the team desires to ensure projects success. The gap between the current and the desired level, direct the level of communication and engagement necessary to truly engage the stakeholder. You should strive to close the gap as quickly as possible. One outcome of the stakeholder analysis, and process is the Stakeholder Engagement Plan. Once completed, the plan should include all the desired levels of engagement for each of the key stakeholders, the impact of the change for each stakeholder, and if there is any overlap between stakeholders, or any relationships that can be optimized, the type of information to be shared, and how, and the method for updating the plan as the project progresses. If you plan your stakeholder engagement plan well, you should have all the tools necessary to manage your stakeholders in a way that makes them feel like they are properly informed, and comfortable with the process being made.