Project delivery
Stakeholder register
Name, role, what they need, power, interest, and the gap between current and desired engagement. The gap column turns a list of people into an ordered set of engagement tasks.
What it is
Most stakeholder registers record power and interest, which tells you who matters and not what to do. That is why so many are written at initiation and never opened again.
Scoring current engagement against desired engagement changes it into a plan. A stakeholder at neutral who needs to be supportive is a piece of work with a size attached, and the register becomes an ordered list of engagement tasks. Where the two match, the answer is to leave them alone, which is a real answer worth recording rather than a blank.
Identification also has to run the length of the project. The most expensive stakeholder is the one found in month eight, and that happens because design decisions taken in month six create interests that did not exist at initiation. No amount of rigour at the start finds them, so the register gets revisited whenever the plan does.
When to use it
- A group nobody had identified has just raised an objection that requires rework.
- You have a list of stakeholders and no idea which of them needs attention this month.
- A senior stakeholder is consuming a great deal of time on a project that no longer needs their attention.
- The project crosses departments and you need to know who can stop it.
The columns
- Stakeholder
- Role
- What they need from this
- Power
- Interest
- Current engagement
- Desired engagement
- Gap
- Approach
- Owner
- Last contact
The template
| Stakeholder | Role | What they need from this | Power | Interest | Current engagement | Desired engagement | Gap | Approach | Owner | Last contact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D. Whitfield | Sponsor | The benefit case to hold up at the portfolio review | High | High | Supportive | Leading | 1 | Monthly one to one, and give him the numbers before he is asked for them | Project manager | 2026-02-04 |
| Regulatory affairs | Assurance | Evidence the control operated, built as we go | High | Medium | Neutral | Supportive | 1 | Bring them into design reviews now rather than at the audit | Project manager | 2026-01-22 |
| Operations manager, North | Receives the output | Confidence the team can run it from day one | Medium | High | Resistant | Supportive | 2 | Understand the objection. Her exception cases are probably a real design gap | Change lead | 2026-02-03 |
| Platform engineering | Supplies a dependency | A clear statement of what we need and when | Medium | Low | Unaware | Neutral | 2 | One conversation setting out the environment need, then leave them alone | Delivery lead | 2026-02-05 |
| Finance business partner | Controls the budget | Spend against forecast, with no surprises | High | Low | Neutral | Neutral | 0 | Monthly figures, no meeting needed | Project manager | 2026-02-01 |
| Front line users | Use the output daily | To be asked before it is built, not after | Low | High | Unaware | Supportive | 3 | Two sessions a cycle with a rotating group, and show them the increment | Change lead | 2026-01-30 |
| Group architecture | Sets standards | Assurance the design fits the target estate | Medium | Medium | Neutral | Supportive | 1 | Early design walkthrough, then a checkpoint per phase | Solution lead | 2026-01-18 |
The Gap column is a formula. Score the two engagement columns on the scale below and subtract, and the sheet sorts by the size of the problem rather than by the size of the person.
The engagement scale
Score each stakeholder twice, once for where they are and once for where they need to be.
- Unaware. Does not know the project exists, or knows the name and nothing else.
- Resistant. Knows about it and does not want it, or wants something different.
- Neutral. Knows about it and has no view either way.
- Supportive. Wants it to succeed and will say so.
- Leading. Actively drives it, uses their own standing to clear its path.
Why the gap is the useful column
A register that records power and interest tells you who matters. It does not tell you what to do, which is why so many of them are written once and never opened again.
The gap does. A stakeholder at Neutral who needs to be Supportive is a piece of work with a size attached, and the register becomes a list of engagement tasks ordered by how far each one has to move. Where current and desired match, the answer is to leave them alone, and that is a real answer worth recording rather than a blank.
Desired is not always higher. A senior stakeholder at Leading on a project that no longer needs their attention can drop to Supportive, freeing their time and yours.
Power and interest still matter
They set how much effort the gap deserves. High power and high interest means manage closely, so the gap gets addressed directly and soon. High power and low interest means keep satisfied with the minimum that stops them being surprised. Low power and high interest means keep informed, since these are often the people who use the output and know most about it. Low power and low interest means monitor.
The trap is treating power as seniority. Somebody who can stop the project by not doing something has power over it whatever their grade, which is why platform engineering sits at Medium above.
Identification never stops
The most expensive stakeholder is the one identified in month eight. Regulatory affairs raising objections after the design is settled is the standard version of this, and it happens because the register was written at initiation and treated as finished.
Revisit it whenever the plan is revisited. Ask who is affected by what has been decided since the last review, and add them. Design decisions taken in month six create interests that did not exist in month one, and no amount of rigour at the start would have found them.
Keeping it honest
Last contact is the column that shows whether this is a plan or a filing. Sort by it before each review. Anybody with a gap above zero and no contact for a month is a task nobody has started, and the register is telling you so.
Questions people ask
- Is desired engagement always higher than current?
- No, and treating it that way wastes effort. A stakeholder at leading on work that is now routine can drop to supportive, which frees their time and yours.
- How is this different from a stakeholder map?
- A map plots power against interest to show who matters. This register adds what each person needs, where their engagement is now, where it has to be, and who owns closing the difference. The map classifies and the register schedules.
- Does power mean seniority?
- No. Somebody who can stop the project by not doing something has power over it whatever their grade, which is why a platform team with no interest in the outcome often outranks a director on this sheet.