Stakeholder Analysis Example: Matrix, Steps, Types & Template

Stakeholder Analysis Example

A stakeholder analysis example is a worked illustration showing how to identify a project’s stakeholders, evaluate their power and interest, and assign each one an engagement strategy, usually organized in a matrix like the one below. It’s the fastest way to understand the process, because seeing how real classifications get made teaches more than a definition alone.

This article walks through what stakeholder analysis actually involves, the types of stakeholders you’ll typically encounter, the four-step process, a full matrix example for a CRM implementation, a second example for a hospital software rollout, a copyable template, and where students working on WGU C206 can find course-specific guidance. By the end, you’ll have a working framework you can apply to your own project, not just a definition to memorize.

What Is Stakeholder Analysis?

Stakeholder analysis is the process of identifying everyone with a stake in a project, then evaluating their interests, influence, and potential impact so you can decide how to engage each one. It’s not just making a list of names; it’s understanding who matters to the project’s outcome and why, then building a plan around that understanding.

The Project Management Institute describes stakeholder analysis as involving identification of stakeholders, assessment of their power and interest, prioritization based on that assessment, and development of communication and management approaches tailored to each group. That four-part structure (identify, assess, prioritize, plan) is what separates real stakeholder analysis from a contact list.

Why Is Stakeholder Analysis Important?

Skipping stakeholder analysis, or doing it superficially, tends to show up later as problems that were avoidable:

• Project risk. Stakeholders you didn’t account for can block progress you didn’t see coming.
• Communication gaps. Different stakeholders need different information at different frequencies; a one-size-fits-all update plan under-serves some and overwhelms others.
• Unmet expectations. Stakeholders who don’t know what to expect are more likely to be disappointed, even when the project technically succeeds.
• Resistance. People who feel excluded from a process they have a stake in tend to resist it, sometimes actively.
• Resource allocation. Knowing who actually needs your attention keeps you from spreading limited project time too thin.
• Project support. Stakeholders who feel heard early are more likely to advocate for the project later.

Stakeholder Analysis vs. Stakeholder Mapping

The two terms get used interchangeably, but they’re not quite the same thing.

In practice, mapping is usually a visual output of the analysis, the matrix or grid you build after you’ve actually done the thinking. For a deeper explanation of the process, identification methods, and stakeholder-management concepts covered here, see our stakeholder analysis guide.

Who Are Some Examples of Stakeholders?

Stakeholders can be internal (inside the organization running the project) or external (outside it), and the exact list depends entirely on the specific project. A software rollout and a construction project will have almost entirely different stakeholder lists, even though the analysis process is identical.

Internal Stakeholder Examples

• Project manager
• Employees directly involved in the work
• Executives and senior leadership
• Department managers
• The project team itself
• Business owners

External Stakeholder Examples

• Customers
• Suppliers
• Regulators and government agencies
• Vendors
• Community groups
• Investors
• Business partners

Primary vs. Secondary Stakeholders

Primary stakeholders are directly affected by the project’s outcome, an employee whose daily workflow changes because of a new system, or a customer whose product experience shifts. Secondary stakeholders are affected indirectly or have influence without being directly impacted, a regulator who oversees compliance but doesn’t use the system, or a community group affected by a facility’s operations without working there. Both categories matter; secondary stakeholders are often the ones analyses miss.

What Are the 7 Types of Stakeholders?

There’s no single universally accepted seven-type classification of stakeholders; different frameworks group them differently. A practical, widely usable seven-category breakdown covers customers, employees, managers and executives, owners and investors, suppliers and partners, government and regulators, and communities or interest groups.

Actual influence varies significantly by project. A regulator has enormous influence on a healthcare project and almost none on an internal marketing campaign; treat this table as a starting orientation, not a fixed ranking.

What Are the Key Elements of a Stakeholder Analysis?

A complete stakeholder analysis typically covers ten elements: stakeholder identity, their role, their interest in the project, their power or influence, their potential impact, their expectations, their position or attitude, potential risks they represent, their communication needs, and the engagement strategy assigned to them.

Stakeholder Power

How much ability a stakeholder has to affect the project’s direction, resources, or outcome. Power can come from authority (an executive who controls budget), expertise (a technical lead whose sign-off is required), or informal influence (a well-respected employee others listen to).

Stakeholder Interest

How much a stakeholder cares about the project’s outcome, regardless of how much power they hold. High interest and low power is a common combination, employees are often deeply interested in a system change but have little formal authority over whether it happens.

Stakeholder Impact

How much the project’s outcome will actually affect the stakeholder, which isn’t always the same as their interest or power. A department that will be reorganized by a project has high impact even if its manager currently has low interest because they don’t yet know what’s coming.

Stakeholder Expectations

What the stakeholder believes should happen, and what they expect to get out of the project. Mismatched expectations, not project failure itself, are often what actually drives stakeholder dissatisfaction.

Stakeholder Position

Whether a stakeholder is supportive, neutral, or resistant toward the project. PMI literature emphasizes that positions aren’t fixed; a neutral stakeholder can become resistant if communication breaks down, or a resistant one can become supportive once their concerns are addressed. That’s part of why stakeholder analysis needs to be revisited, not just done once at project kickoff.

What Are the Four Steps of Stakeholder Analysis?

The four steps of stakeholder analysis are: identify stakeholders, analyze and prioritize them, develop an engagement strategy for each, and monitor and adjust as the project progresses.

Step 1: Identify Stakeholders

Cast a wide net here. PMI’s guidance is to think broadly, including everyone affected by the project, anyone with influence over its success or failure, decision-makers, resource providers, and people who could support or resist the work. It’s easier to remove a stakeholder from consideration later than to discover a missed one halfway through the project.

Step 2: Analyze and Prioritize Stakeholders

Evaluate each identified stakeholder against power, interest, impact, importance, and attitude. This is where the Power-Interest Matrix comes in, a simple two-axis tool that turns a long list of names into four practical categories, covered in detail below.

Step 3: Develop an Engagement Strategy

Once you know where a stakeholder falls on the matrix, assign a strategy: Manage Closely, Keep Satisfied, Keep Informed, or Monitor. Each strategy implies a different level of communication effort and involvement, which is the whole point of doing the analysis in the first place.

Step 4: Monitor and Adjust

Stakeholder influence and interest shift as a project moves through its lifecycle. PMI literature specifically warns against treating the matrix as a one-time exercise; a stakeholder analysis done at kickoff and never revisited stops being useful the moment circumstances change.

Stakeholder Analysis Matrix Example

This is the most detailed section of this article, so let’s build a full example using a fictional scenario.

Example: Implementing a New CRM System

A company is rolling out a new CRM system across its sales and support teams. Here’s a stakeholder analysis matrix for that project:

Here’s the reasoning behind each classification, not just the labels:

CEO: High interest because the CRM investment is tied to a strategic sales goal the CEO is accountable for. High power because the CEO controls budget and can end the project. High impact since sales performance visibility changes at the executive level. Supportive, since the CEO championed the initiative. Manage closely, because losing executive support would kill the project.

Sales team: High interest since their daily workflow is directly rebuilt around the new system. Medium power, since they can slow adoption through resistance but can’t stop the project outright. High impact, obviously, since it’s their primary tool. Mixed position, because some reps are excited about better reporting while others resent learning a new interface. Consult regularly, since their feedback during rollout materially affects whether adoption succeeds.

IT department: High interest and high power, since they’re implementing and maintaining the system and can flag technical blockers that stop the project cold. High impact, since their workload shifts significantly during and after rollout. Supportive, since a modern CRM reduces their long-term maintenance burden. Manage closely, for the same reason as the CEO: their buy-in is structurally necessary.

Customers: Medium interest, since most customers care more about their own experience than the tool behind it, but a clunky transition could visibly affect service quality. Medium power, since they can’t block the project but can express dissatisfaction that reaches leadership. High impact, if support response times shift during the transition. Neutral position by default, since most customers aren’t yet aware of the change. Keep informed, mainly to prevent surprise if service quality dips temporarily during rollout.

CRM vendor: High interest, since a successful implementation is good for their business relationship and reference potential. Medium power, since they can influence timeline and configuration but don’t control internal company decisions. Medium impact, since their revenue is affected but their core business isn’t. Supportive, since successful clients are good for their business. Coordinate, since the project’s technical success depends on close collaboration with them.

Finance: Medium interest, focused mainly on the budget impact rather than the CRM’s features. High power, since they control whether the budget continues to be approved. Medium impact, since their own workflows don’t change much. Neutral position, since they’re evaluating the project on cost rather than championing or opposing it. Keep satisfied, since their ongoing budget approval matters even though they’re not deeply engaged day-to-day.

Employees (non-sales, general staff): Medium interest, mostly curious rather than invested. Low power, since they have no direct control over the project. Medium impact, since some cross-functional processes touch the CRM indirectly. Mixed position, reflecting general workplace uncertainty about change. Keep informed, a light-touch strategy appropriate for their limited direct stake.

Stakeholder Analysis Example: Real-World Project Scenario

The following example is hypothetical and illustrative, not an actual project or WGU student submission. It’s built to show how the same process applies in a more complex, higher-stakes environment.

Hospital Electronic Health Record Implementation

A hospital is replacing its legacy patient records system with a new electronic health record (EHR) platform.

Doctors and nurses illustrate an important nuance: both have high interest since the system changes their daily clinical work directly, but doctors typically carry more formal influence over whether the rollout proceeds smoothly (through their ability to escalate concerns or slow adoption), which is why they land in different engagement categories despite similar interest levels. Regulators sit in “keep satisfied” rather than “manage closely” because their influence is real but largely indirect; they set requirements the project must meet, but they aren’t stakeholders you’re actively managing day-to-day the way you would internal leadership.

Stakeholder Analysis Example for a Business Project

Launching a New Product

A company preparing to launch a new consumer product has a different stakeholder mix than either example above:

• Customers: Ultimately decide whether the product succeeds; their interest is in value, quality, and whether the product solves a real problem.
• Product team: High interest and high impact, since the launch is their direct output; their priority is functionality and timeline.
• Marketing: High interest, focused on positioning and messaging; their success depends on having a product story that resonates.
• Sales: Medium-to-high interest, concerned mainly with whether the product is actually sellable and how it’s priced against competitors.
• Executives: High power, focused on revenue projections and strategic fit with the broader portfolio.
• Suppliers: Medium interest, concerned with order volume and contract terms tied to production.
• Investors: High power, focused on return and market reception, often the audience a launch’s success is ultimately measured against.

Notice how priorities diverge even among stakeholders who all want the launch to succeed: the product team cares about functionality, marketing cares about narrative, sales cares about sellability, and investors care about return. A stakeholder analysis surfaces these differences before they become conflicts during the project.

Stakeholder Analysis Example for a Project Manager

Stakeholder analysis isn’t a one-time deliverable; a project manager uses it across the entire project lifecycle.

Before the Project

• Identify stakeholders as early as possible, ideally during initiation.
• Analyze influence and interest to build the initial matrix.
• Identify expectations directly, through conversations rather than assumptions.

During Project Execution

• Communicate according to each stakeholder’s assigned strategy.
• Watch for and manage resistance as it surfaces.
• Monitor for changes in influence or interest as the project evolves.
• Reassess priorities at key milestones, not just once.

Before Project Completion

• Confirm that stakeholder expectations were actually met, not just assumed to be.
• Gather feedback before formally closing the project.
• Prepare a transition plan for any ongoing stakeholder relationships.
• Confirm formal acceptance from stakeholders whose sign-off matters.

Stakeholder analysis is also a concept students encounter when applying project-management principles to coursework. If you’re working on C206 Task 1, see our WGU C206 Task 1 Guide for course-specific guidance; this article covers the general concept, not your specific current assignment instructions.

How to Create a Stakeholder Analysis Matrix

A practical seven-step process for building your own:

Step 1: List Stakeholders

Brainstorm broadly first; narrow the list after, not before.

Step 2: Assess Power

For each stakeholder, estimate their ability to affect the project’s direction or resources.

Step 3: Assess Interest

Estimate how much each stakeholder actually cares about the outcome.

Step 4: Assess Impact

Estimate how much the project’s outcome will actually affect each stakeholder.

Step 5: Assess Position

Determine whether each stakeholder currently leans supportive, neutral, or resistant.

Step 6: Assign Engagement Strategy

Based on where each stakeholder lands, assign Manage Closely, Keep Satisfied, Keep Informed, or Monitor.

Step 7: Reassess Regularly

Set a cadence, at major milestones, or on a fixed schedule, to revisit and update the matrix.

Power-Interest Matrix Example

Manage Closely (high power, high interest): These stakeholders need the most engagement, regular updates, direct involvement in decisions, and fast response to concerns.

Keep Satisfied (high power, low interest): They don’t need constant engagement, but their support matters enough that you shouldn’t let them become dissatisfied through neglect.

Keep Informed (low power, high interest): They can’t significantly derail the project, but they’re invested enough that leaving them in the dark creates unnecessary friction.

Monitor (low power, low interest): Minimal effort is appropriate here, mainly watching for any shift into a different quadrant.

PMI’s stakeholder management literature supports using power-interest grids specifically because they translate a complex set of relationships into a simple, actionable communication plan.

Stakeholder Analysis vs. Stakeholder Management

The short version: analysis is understanding, management is action. You can’t manage stakeholders well without first analyzing them accurately, but the analysis itself doesn’t move the project forward; it just tells you where to focus.

Common Stakeholder Analysis Mistakes

1. Failing to identify indirect stakeholders. The people not obviously connected to a project are often the ones a weak analysis misses entirely.
2. Assuming all stakeholders have the same priorities. Two stakeholders who both “support” a project can want completely different things from it.
3. Confusing interest with influence. A stakeholder can care deeply about an outcome without having any real power to affect it, and vice versa.
4. Ignoring resistance. Resistant stakeholders don’t go away if you avoid engaging with them; they usually get louder.
5. Creating the matrix once and never updating it. A stakeholder analysis from kickoff is often outdated by the midpoint of a project.
6. Failing to develop engagement strategies. A completed matrix with no follow-through is just a chart, not a plan.
7. Making unsupported assumptions. Guessing at a stakeholder’s position instead of confirming it directly leads to avoidable surprises.
8. Ignoring low-power, high-impact stakeholders. Low power doesn’t mean the project won’t affect them significantly, and that gap can cause real harm if it’s ignored.
9. Treating the matrix as paperwork rather than a management tool. The matrix should shape how you actually communicate, not just satisfy a deliverable requirement.
10. Focusing only on executives. Executive buy-in matters, but a project can still fail from the ground up if frontline stakeholders are neglected.

Stakeholder Analysis Template

A copyable structure you can adapt to your own project:

Stakeholder: Name or group.

Role: Their function relative to the project (executive sponsor, end user, vendor, etc.).

Interest: How much they care about the outcome (low, medium, high).

Power: How much influence they have over the project’s direction or resources.

Impact: How much the project’s outcome will actually affect them.

Position: Supportive, neutral, or resistant, based on current information, not assumption.

Concerns: Their specific worries or priorities, in their own terms where possible.

Engagement Strategy: Manage Closely, Keep Satisfied, Keep Informed, or Monitor, based on the power-interest quadrant they fall into.

How to Prioritize Stakeholders

Power and interest are the most common lenses, but they’re not the only ones worth considering:

• Power: Formal or informal ability to affect the project.
• Interest: How much they care about the outcome.
• Impact: How much the outcome will affect them.
• Importance: How critical their support is to project success specifically.
• Urgency: How time-sensitive their concerns or needs are.
• Legitimacy: How valid or recognized their claim on the project is.
• Risk: What happens if this stakeholder is mismanaged.

No single prioritization model is universally superior; different projects call for different lenses. One well-supported alternative to the power-interest grid is the salience model, which prioritizes stakeholders based on power, legitimacy, and urgency together, useful when a project has stakeholders whose formal power is low but whose claim is highly legitimate or time-sensitive (a community group affected by an environmental issue, for instance).

Frequently Asked Questions About Stakeholder Analysis

What is stakeholder analysis?

The process of identifying everyone with a stake in a project and evaluating their interests, influence, and potential impact so you can plan how to engage each one effectively.

Who are some examples of stakeholders?

Internal examples include the project manager, employees, executives, and department managers. External examples include customers, suppliers, regulators, vendors, community groups, and investors. The specific list depends on the project.

What are the 7 types of stakeholders?

A practical seven-category framework covers customers, employees, managers and executives, owners and investors, suppliers and business partners, government and regulators, and communities or interest groups. This is one useful framework, not a universal standard.

What are the key elements of a stakeholder analysis?

Stakeholder identity, role, interest, power, impact, expectations, position, potential risks, communication needs, and the engagement strategy assigned to each stakeholder.

What are the four steps of stakeholder analysis?

Identify stakeholders, analyze and prioritize them, develop an engagement strategy for each, and monitor and adjust as the project progresses.

What is an example of a stakeholder analysis?

A CRM implementation project where the CEO, IT department, sales team, customers, vendor, finance, and general employees are each evaluated for interest, power, and impact, then assigned an engagement strategy like Manage Closely or Keep Informed, as shown in the matrix earlier in this article.

What is a stakeholder analysis matrix?

A table or grid that organizes stakeholders by attributes like power, interest, and impact, then links each one to a specific engagement strategy.

What is the difference between stakeholder analysis and stakeholder mapping?

Stakeholder analysis examines stakeholder characteristics like interest and influence; stakeholder mapping is typically the visual output of that analysis, often a matrix or grid used to communicate priorities at a glance.

What is a power-interest matrix?

A four-quadrant tool that classifies stakeholders by their power and interest levels, assigning each quadrant a matching engagement strategy: Manage Closely, Keep Satisfied, Keep Informed, or Monitor.

Why is stakeholder analysis important?

It reduces project risk, improves communication planning, surfaces mismatched expectations early, and helps a project team allocate limited attention toward the stakeholders who matter most.

How do you write a stakeholder analysis?

Identify stakeholders broadly, assess each one’s power, interest, and impact, assign an engagement strategy based on that assessment, and document it in a matrix or template you revisit as the project progresses.

How do you prioritize stakeholders?

Power and interest are the most common factors, but impact, importance, urgency, legitimacy, and risk are also useful lenses depending on the project. The salience model (power, legitimacy, and urgency) is a well-supported alternative when formal power alone doesn’t capture a stakeholder’s real claim on the project.

Sources & References

1. Project Management Institute, “4 Steps for Proper Project Planning”, PMI Knowledge Center.
2. Project Management Institute, “Stakeholder Management: A Task for Project Success”, PMI Knowledge Center.
3. Project Management Institute, “Stakeholder Analysis: A Pivotal Practice of Successful Projects”, PMI Knowledge Center.
4. Project Management Institute, “Principles to Involve Stakeholders in Projects”, PMI Knowledge Center.
5. Project Management Institute, “Stakeholder Management and RACI”, PMI Blog.
6. Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., & Wood, D. J., “Toward a Theory of Stakeholder Identification and Salience,” foundational academic source for the power-legitimacy-urgency salience model referenced in stakeholder prioritization literature.
7. Employed Scholar, Stakeholder Analysis, for a deeper walkthrough of the identification and analysis process.
8. Employed Scholar, WGU C206 Task 1 Guide, for course-specific guidance on the C206 stakeholder analysis assignment.