Stakeholder questions are some of the most common on the PMP, especially in the People domain. The exam expects you to identify stakeholders early, understand their interests, and engage them actively, not just send them reports.
Identify early, and keep identifying
Stakeholder identification starts at the beginning of the project and continues throughout it. People join, leave, and change their views.
Everything you learn goes into the stakeholder register: who they are, their role, their interests, their influence and their expected impact.
Trap: when a new stakeholder appears mid-project, do not just add them to the distribution list. Update the register, assess them, and plan how to engage them.
The engagement levels
PMI describes five levels of engagement:
| Level | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Unaware | Does not know about the project |
| Resistant | Knows about it and resists the change |
| Neutral | Knows about it, neither supportive nor resistant |
| Supportive | Knows about it and supports it |
| Leading | Actively engaged in making it succeed |
The stakeholder engagement assessment matrix shows, for each stakeholder, the current level (marked C) and the desired level (marked D). The gap between them is what your engagement plan must close.
The power and interest grid
| Low interest | High interest | |
|---|---|---|
| High power | Keep satisfied | Manage closely |
| Low power | Monitor | Keep informed |
The grid helps you decide how much effort to put into each stakeholder. Similar grids use influence or impact instead of power or interest.
The salience model
The salience model classifies stakeholders by three attributes:
- Power: can they impose their will?
- Legitimacy: is their involvement appropriate?
- Urgency: do they need immediate attention?
Stakeholders with all three are definitive stakeholders and need the most attention.
Engagement, not just communication
The exam separates two ideas:
- Communication is about getting the right information to the right people.
- Engagement is about involving stakeholders, understanding their concerns, and building support.
A good answer often has the project manager meeting the stakeholder to understand their concerns, not just sending more information.
Handling a resistant stakeholder
The PMI pattern is consistent:
- Understand first. Meet privately and find out why they resist.
- Address the real concern, for example by involving them in a decision that affects them.
- Update the engagement plan and monitor whether their engagement improves.
- Escalate only if you cannot resolve it yourself.
Stakeholders in agile
In agile, the product owner represents stakeholders' interests in the backlog. Stakeholders see real progress at every sprint review and give feedback that shapes the next sprint. Frequent demos are themselves an engagement tool.
Try a question
Halfway through a project, a regional director who was not identified at the start says the new system will disrupt her team and refuses to release staff for training. What should the project manager do first?
A. Escalate to the sponsor to secure the staff.
B. Meet the director to understand her concerns and update the stakeholder register.
C. Send her the project charter and the training schedule.
D. Postpone the training for her region until after go-live.
Answer: B. She is a newly identified, resistant stakeholder. The first step is to understand her concerns and record her in the register, then plan engagement. A escalates too early, C is communication without engagement, and D changes the plan without understanding the problem.
Practice
Stakeholder questions often mix with conflict and communication. Read how to answer situational questions, then try the free 30-question PMP quiz.