HKSM

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Purpose & When to Use

• Confirm that stakeholders are informed, involved, and supportive at the level the project needs.
• Detect early signs of dissatisfaction, resistance, or misalignment and act before they escalate.
• Validate whether engagement tactics and communications are working as intended.
• Trigger updates to plans, logs, and baselines when engagement changes impact scope, schedule, or cost.
• Use throughout the project, especially after reviews, demos, major decisions, organizational changes, or emerging risks.

Mini Flow (How It’s Done)

• Revisit the stakeholder register, engagement plan, and communications plan to recall desired engagement levels and tactics.
• Collect evidence: feedback from meetings and demos, surveys or interviews, collaboration tool activity, approvals, issue and risk logs, and sentiment from status interactions.
• Compare current engagement versus desired engagement for key stakeholders and groups, looking for gaps and trends.
• Find root causes for gaps, such as unclear messages, channel overload, role changes, competing priorities, or unmet expectations.
• Select responses: tailor messages, change frequency or channels, involve sponsors or influencers, address concerns, or run focused touchpoints.
• Implement actions and record them with owners and due dates; update the stakeholder register, engagement plan, risk and issue logs as needed.
• Submit a change request if engagement actions affect baselined scope, schedule, budget, or quality plans.
• Communicate outcomes to the team and relevant stakeholders, then track results and iterate.

Quality & Acceptance Checklist

• Current stakeholder list, roles, interests, and influence are up to date.
• Clear comparison of current versus desired engagement exists for key stakeholders, with evidence.
• Specific actions are defined with owners, timelines, and success criteria.
• Two-way feedback has been sought and documented, not just one-way status updates.
• Related risks and issues from engagement gaps are logged and have response strategies.
• Any plan changes with baseline impact have approved change requests.
• Sensitive information is handled appropriately and shared on a need-to-know basis.
• Engagement indicators are tracked, such as attendance, responsiveness, approval cycle times, and satisfaction scores.
• Updates are communicated to the team, sponsor, and affected stakeholders.

Common Mistakes & Exam Traps

• Confusing monitoring with planning; monitoring focuses on performance and adjustments, not drafting the initial plan.
• Relying on broadcast communications only and failing to capture stakeholder feedback.
• Overlooking less vocal or lower-power stakeholders whose adoption is critical to outcomes.
• Reacting to a single complaint without checking data, trends, and root causes.
• Skipping change control when engagement actions affect baselined plans.
• Failing to update the stakeholder register when roles, influence, or interests change.
• Assuming agile ceremonies alone are sufficient; intentional engagement checks and follow-ups are still needed.
• Measuring only activity volume rather than outcomes such as clarity, agreement, and timely decisions.

PMP Example Question

During a review, a key stakeholder voices dissatisfaction despite all deliverables meeting acceptance criteria. What should the project manager do next?

1. Ignore the feedback because scope has been completed as planned.
2. Update the risk register and proceed without further action.
3. Engage the stakeholder to understand concerns, compare results to the engagement plan, and adjust communication and involvement tactics.
4. Submit a change request to increase the budget for additional training.

Correct Answer: C — Engage the stakeholder to understand concerns, compare to the plan, and adapt tactics.

Explanation: The next step is to gather feedback, analyze the engagement gap, and adjust the strategy. Escalation or budget changes come later if needed.