PMI defines, project stakeholders as “Individuals and organizations who are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected as a result of project execution or successful project completion.”

Studies says that 30% of projects experience failure due to poor communication among stakeholders.

Stakeholder engagement helps project teams to proactively consider the needs and desires of anyone who has a stake in the project, which can foster connections, trust, confidence, and buy-in for the project’s key initiatives.

It’s possible to remove hurdles, save time and more importantly ensure delivery of the project within the time and budget constraints, if enough care is taken to ensure that the rules for effective communication of stakeholders is established and implemented.

Stakeholder analysis helps to identify the power, interest and influence of various stakeholders and will help to device the right strategy to engage all of them. Understanding the desired state and the current state of the stakeholders are essential to come up with the right strategy to engage them.

Determining whether stakeholders in a position of strong influence hold negative interests may be critical to project success. This level of understanding can best be reached by conducting a formal assessment of each stakeholder’s level of importance and influence to the project.

Stakeholder analysis looks at a problem or situation and identifies any conflicting needs of each person weighed against each other and helps to develop a strategic vision of the human and institutional landscape and of the relationships between the different stakeholders. The difference between success and failure can be simply in knowing project advocates and opponents, understanding their respective needs and levels of influence, and aligning the project accordingly.

https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/stakeholder-analysis-pivotal-practice-projects-8905