Have you ever worked on a highly collaborative project but weren't sure about each contributor's role? Understanding each interested party's role in a project will help you facilitate your interactions and make managing that project much more efficient.

Interested Party

An interested party is anyone that has a legitimate interest in and who can make an impact on the project. These persons, groups, or organizations can be both internal or external to your organization.

Knowing your project's interested parties will help you to:

Plan whether, when, and how to involve them
Confirm that the original project scope is accurate

Project managers are responsible for keeping interested parties happy.

But the project’s success always depends on whether or not each interested party meets expectations.

Know your project's measure of success

When managing a project, always ask yourself:

Who will tell me whether or not I met or exceeded expectations once the project is delivered?

Asking this question will help you identify the interested parties of your project and the direct points of contact. Because of their importance and potential impact, it's essential to identify interested parties early on.

Interested parties may include people or groups you had not considered before, or who are less obvious than your boss, client, or team members. Remember that interested parties are those who have a genuine interest in the project, including the person or group funding the project, managers or decision-makers, and even vendors.

Below are some examples of potentially interested parties you may need to consider:

Potential Internal Interested Parties

Executive Management | Upper-level management responsible for overseeing all the operations in an organization

Initiator | The individual who presented the idea for the project

Administrative Groups | Groups typically involved in most projects, such as human resources, finance, procurement, contract and legal

Groups Needed for the Project's Success | Groups or individuals with special knowledge related to the project

Potential External Interested Parties

Customers | Individuals or groups who buy or use your organization's products and services

Vendors, Suppliers, and Contractors | Organizations that provide human, physical or financial resources to help you perform your project's work

Regulators | Regulatory agencies that govern and establish rules, standards, and guidelines over certain aspects of the project's scope

Initiator | The individual who presented the idea for the project.