“Stakeholders”: Shearing between ISO 21500:2012 and IS0 26000:2010 + other related Standards & Models! Let’ start with the definition of the term “stakeholder” and “project stakeholder”.

IS0 26000 defines the stakeholders as: “Individual or group that has an interest in any decision or activity of an organization”. Furthermore in 4.5 – Respect for stakeholders interests: “… consider the views of stakeholders whose interests are likely to be affected by a decision or activity, even if they have no formal role in the governance of the organization, or are unaware of these interests”.

New PMI PMBOK® Standard defines the project stakeholders as: “Stakeholders include all members of the project team as well as all interested entities that are internal or external to the organization. The project team identifies internal and external, positive and negative, and performing and advising stakeholders in order to determine the project requirements and the expectations of all parties.

In IPMA- International Project Excellence Award Model is alternatively used the term “Parties Involved” (groups that are potentially interested or concerned with the project). For example, Criterion 1, Sub-criterion 1.1: “It has to prove how the expectations and demands of parties involved are identified… The parties involved should be organized based on criteria 6, 7 and 8. Thus, Customers, People and Other Parties Involved.

In all the above, in a broad sense, “Standards” we can find processes and/or guidelines in order to categorize “Stakeholders”, but nowhere (in my knowledge) a single group of stakeholders has the privilege to be classified as: “The Stakeholders”.

IS0 21500 start by defining the (project) stakeholder as: a “person, group or organization that has interests in, or can affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by, any aspect of the project”. A full chapter is dedicated to the “Stakeholder and Project Organization”. It is considered that “The project stakeholders, including the project organization, should be described in sufficient detail for the project to be successful. The roles and responsibilities of stakeholders should be defined and communicated based on the organization and project goals”. The project stakeholder set includes the following main components:

Project Governance (Project Steering committee or Board, Project Sponsor),

Project Organization (Project Manager, Project Management Team, Project Team),

Special Interest Groups, Project Management Office, Regulatory Bodies, Customers or Customer Representatives, Employees, Business Partners, Shareholders, Suppliers, Finance Providers.

It is emphasized that: “Achievement of consensus among key project stakeholders on the constraints may form a strong foundation for project success”.

And then contradicts with itself and all the above “Standards”: The term “additional stakeholders”, is introduced, in reference with Figure 4.

From my point of view this is just a missed effort to give examples of other stakeholder groups, which leads to a confusion! In my opinion the Internal Stakeholders are not “The Stakeholders”. We cannot trace a borderline other than “Internal – External stakeholders” and use the term “additional stakeholders”, and/or “other interested parties”!