The Stakeholder role is responsible for representing an interest
group whose needs must be satisfied by the project. The role may be
played by anyone who is (or potentially will be) materially affected
by the outcome of the project.
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Effectively solving any complex problem involves satisfying the needs of a
diverse group of stakeholders. Typically, different interest groups (and even
stakeholders) will have different perspectives on the problem and different
needs that must be addressed by the solution. Many stakeholders are users of
the system. Other stakeholders are only indirect users of the system or are
affected only by the business outcomes that the system influences. Many are
economic buyers or champions of the system. An understanding of who the stakeholders
are and their particular needs are key elements in developing an effective solution.
This section provides links to additional information related to this role.
Examples of interest groups you might need to consider as Stakeholder:
- Customer or customer representative,
- User or user representative,
- Investor,
- Shareholder,
- Owner or Board member,
- Production manager,
- Buyer,
- Designer,
- Tester,
- Documentation writer,
- and so on
The Stakeholder role requires subject-matter expertise in the domain or
the interest area.
In some project cultures, a person playing the Stakeholder role must act as the representative
for a number of other disenfranchised people: people who will be materially
affected by the outcome of the project, but cannot for some reason represent
their needs directly. As such, the assigned Stakeholder representative must be
able to elicit sufficient information from other members of the interest group
to fairly represent their needs.
The Stakeholder role can be assigned in the following ways:
- Assign one or more staff members to perform the Stakeholder role only. This works
well in large teams, where there are a sufficient number of subject-matter
experts available who have significant domain knowledge that is critical to
the success of the project.
- Assign one or more staff members to perform both the Stakeholder and Requirements Specifier
roles. This strategy is a good option for small to mid-sized test teams, and
is often used where domain experts are available to play both roles. You need
to be careful that appropriate effort is devoted to satisfying both of these
roles, and that the domain expert is suitable skilled in requirements elicitation
and communication.
- Assign one or more staff members to perform both the Stakeholder and Test Analyst or
Tester roles. This strategy is another option for small to mid-sized test
teams, and is often used where domain experts are available to play both roles.
Again, you need to be careful that appropriate effort is devoted to satisfying
both of these roles, and that enough training is provided in testing practices
to make this approach viable.
If either of the latter approaches are taken, it is recommended that you make
sure that at least some staff with specialized skills and experience are assigned
primarily to the roles indicated as secondary here.
See the references page for further information.