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After you identify every one of your stakeholders, you need to determine which of the following groups those people fall into. Then you can decide whether to involve them and, if so, how and when:

 Drivers: People who have some say in defining the results of your project. You’re performing your project for these people.

 Supporters: The people who help you perform your project. Supporters include individuals who authorize or provide the resources for your project as well as those who actually work on it.

 Observers: People who are neither drivers nor supporters but who are interested in the activities and results of your project. Observers have no say in your project, and they’re not actively involved in it. However, your project may affect them at some point in the future.

Separating stakeholders into these three categories helps you decide what information to seek from and share with each group, as well as to clarify the project decisions in which to involve them.

Suppose an IT group has the job of modifying the layout and content of a monthly sales report for all sales representatives. The vice president of sales requested the project, and the chief information officer (CIO — the head of IT’s manager) approved it. As the project manager for this project, consider categorizing your project’s stakeholders as follows:

 Drivers: The vice president of sales is a driver because they have specific reasons for revising the report. The CIO is a potential driver because they may hope to develop certain new capabilities for their group through this project. Individual sales representatives are all drivers for this project because they’ll use the redesigned report to support their work.

 Supporters: The systems analyst who designs the revised report, the training specialist who trains the users, and the vice president of finance who authorizes the funds for changing the manual are all supporters.

 Observers: The head of the customer service department is a potential observer because they hope your project will lead to an improved problem-tracking system this year.

Beware of supporters who try to act like drivers. In the preceding example, the analyst who finalizes the content and format of the report may try to include certain items that they think are helpful. However, only the real drivers should determine the specific data that go into the report. The analyst just determines whether including the desired data is possible and what doing so will cost.

Keep in mind that the same person can be both a driver and a supporter. For example, the vice president of sales is a driver for the project to develop a revised monthly sales report, but they are also a supporter if they have to transfer funds from the sales department budget to pay for developing the report.

The following sections help you identify when you need to involve drivers, supporters, and observers, and how to keep them involved.