Stakeholders are an integral part of a project. They are the end-users or clients, the people from
whom requirements will be drawn, the people who will influence the design and, ultimately, the
people who will reap the benefits of your completed project.
It is extremely important to involve stakeholders in all phases of your project for two reasons.
Firstly, experience shows that their involvement in the project significantly increases your chances
of success by building in a self-correcting feedback loop. Secondly, involving them in your project
builds confidence in your product and will greatly ease its acceptance in your target audience.
There are different types of stakeholders and each type should be handled differently :
Executive: Executive stakeholders are the guys who pay the bills. Typically they
are managers or directors who are involved with commercial
objectives for the project. They should restrict themselves to
commercial considerations and be actively discouraged from being
involved in technical design, their experience and skills are vastly
different to that of 'typical' end-users.
End-user: These are the guys that are going to use your product.
Expert: Sometimes you need input from experts in other fields. People like
graphic designers, support reps, sales or lawyers and accountants.