A stakeholder is anyone or any group that is impacted by a project. This includes individuals or teams who are accountable for or responsible for certain aspects of the project, as well as stakeholders who are simply consulted or kept informed about the project. The following are a few common types of stakeholders:

Project Sponsor

The persons accountable and responsible for representing the sponsoring business.

Customer or Client

Representatives from the sponsoring business who have a stake or role in the project such as providing requirements.

Program Management

A project may fall under a program or impact programs.

Project Management

Managers of the project or projects that are related or impacted.

Business Analysts

Business analysts deliver artifacts such as the project’s business case or requirements.

Project Team

Generally defined as anyone who contributes work to the project.

Project Management Office

An organization’s Project Management Office may have interest in project in order to monitor a project portfolio or maintain project management standards.

Project Management Board

Project governance bodies such as a Project Management Board.

Executive Team

Generally a project wants to garner as much executive attention as possible in order to create visibility that helps to clear issues and recognize project successes.

Functional Managers

Managers who are impacted by business change driven by a project or who have resources committed to the project.

Architects & Designers

Members of the project team who are responsible for delivering aspects of the project’s architecture and design.

Internal Stakeholders

A term for stakeholders who work for the client organization.

External Stakeholders

External stakeholders include anyone involved in a project who doesn’t work for the client organization such as contractors, vendors, partners and suppliers.

End Customers

The customers of the project’s sponsoring business unit.

Local Communities

In many cases, members of the local community have stake in a project. For example, the neighbors of a large construction site may be impacted and compensated for disruption to their use or enjoyment of their property. In such cases, they may be informed of project schedule updates.

Regulators

Some projects attract the interest of government agencies who become stakeholders. In many cases, government approvals are a project dependency.