Project Stakeholders and their Importance

The project involved application of Hydro Laos simulation method on OSASIM dam project for understanding the project stakeholders and gauge their satisfaction levels. It was a 10 weeks long project which involved exploration of the political, corporate and social issues faced on the dam construction project for gaining a better understanding of the project stakeholders. The views of project stakeholders were taken into consideration by the project team members and the project plan was refined for minimization of the risks on the project implementation.

Stakeholders can be identified as people or a group that is affected by or affects the objectives of a project. A stakeholder can contribute to the project through sharing of knowledge, creation of value, or providing support for development (Chetcuti, 2008). The famous Chaos report of the Standish group has stated that the key reason behind success of any project is the support from stakeholders.  Stakeholders can be managed by creating an organized structure and building trust in them through the effective use of communication practices and organizational resources (Craxton, et al., 2014). Stakeholder management involves analysis of their requirements, mapping them with project outcomes, getting them engaged on the project and assessing project outcomes to see if they are fulfilling stakeholder requirements. Simulation can be a very useful tool for determining how specific strategies can create outcomes in support of stakeholder needs. Insights can be gained on the real business activities through experimentation such that an engaging environment is created and at the same time, the risks are minimized (Asser, 2016). As per Swanson and Holton (1999), learning activities like simulation can lead to a better knowledge transfer. Senge (2006) states in his discipline that people can learn best through a real world experience that can be generated using simulation and feedbacks on their experiences makes their learning fast. As per a research conducted by Kenworthy and Wong’s on senior managers in 2005, people above the age of 40 prefer using simulation for understanding systems as it can improve their capability to manage stakeholder needs by 20% (Griffiths, et al., 2007). 

Preparation

In this stage, the team explored various kinds of corporate, environmental, political, and social risks that the project faced and studied the outcome of these risks on the project and its environment.  A team of five students was formed to collect all the relevant data about the project that could be analyzed to come up with these assessments.  The information that was collected for preparing the implementation of the Dam project with improved plan included:

• Identification of stakeholder profiles such as shareholders, customers, contractors, regulatory bodies, community groups, environmental organizations, and archaeologists(WPIC, 2013).
• Prioritization of stakeholder profiles as per the project needs
• Stakeholder requirements that could get their buy-in on the project such that the economical and financial impact of the project can be balanced
• Development of a communication strategy for project stakeholders including processes for collecting information or disbursing the same to individual stakeholders
• Identification of factors that could determined specific attitudes of specific stakeholders of the project(Gaborit, 2015)
• Understanding the cultural factors that could affect the attitude or behaviour of the project stakeholders
• Identifying and understanding goals of different stakeholders and finding out a possibility of creating coalitions between them
• Identifying people who can influence the project and devising strategies to gather support from them(La Trobe University, 2017)

Stakeholder Management

Implementation

For the project implementation, the existing plan for the development of the dam was studied and modified as per the information collected from the stakeholders in the preparation stage. A simulation of the plan was run on computer using Hydro Laos simulation putting in variations as per the stakeholder views with an aim to minimize the risks that resulted from the implementation. These risks included the negative cultural, human, and environmental impacts that were to be minimized by varying stakeholder needs fulfilment in the simulation such that a balance could be created between the stakeholder requirements and the project risks. Every stakeholder holder was of a different view because of which the simulation had to be used with experimentation between different requirements to arrive at the most appropriate strategies for project implementation. The stakeholders of the project included:

• The Executive Director of OSASIM Dam Project was the most important stakeholder as she belonged to the company who was sponsoring the construction of the dam and was to be reported with the project balance sheet.
• Jonathan Knight was the CEO of OSASIM project who was focused on the project deliveries and training of the project team.
• The Energy minister of the region would be affected by the project as the success of the project would affect the re-election of the Minister in the party. The minister is a process oriented person.
• Project Head of the OSASIM project is one of the stakeholders of the project and major distributer of the project infrastructure. This project would be the opportunity for the head to grow in the industry
• Fund manager of the project is the representative of the sponsor organization responsible for providing funds needed for the development of the dam. He would be interested in ensuring that the project is executed at the optimum level of expenditure and delivers desired result(WPIC, 2013).
• The Directory of Agriculture and Forest Office in the region would overlook the regulatory requirement of the project organization and would see if the company is complying with the regulatory procedures(CHRISTENSON & WALKER, 2001).
• The village leader would be another stakeholder of the project who would be interested in preserving the heritage of the village and protect the welfare of the people.
• The construction contractor would be responsible for building the dam and ensuring that the needs of villagers and other stakeholders of the project are sufficiently met. The construction contractor must understand the needs of the local people and the regulators.
• The union leader would be interested in the welfare of the labour involved in the construction of the dam as per the labour laws and associated regulatory procedures(H.T.Walker, et al., 2007)

Evaluation

Evaluation can be based on the impacts of various decision factors involved in the dam development project. For evaluation of each option for implementation of the project, some data was collected including:

• The location of the dam would have different impacts on the community and on the project thus, appropriate choice has to be made based on these impacts.
• The impact of the construction would also be on the people living nearby
• The project would need investments for the development activities involved in the construction of the dam, nearby areas renovation, and construction of transportation facilities for the nearby affected areas.
• The construction of dam may also lead to relocation of the people living around based on the choice of location. The community would like to have minimum displacement of people as it could lead to an increase in cost as well as would cause inconvenience to the people getting displaced.
• There can also be probabilities of accidents at the project site and thus, the safety considerations have to be made in the simulation 

Skills developed

While executing the dam simulation project, I was able to gain new knowledge and develop skills like:

Team work: Evaluation of the project involved consideration of a variety of decision elements and perspectives of stakeholders and thus, a brainstorming was done involving all the team members. This required from everyone to participate actively in the discus so that a consensus can be reached for the choices in the project implementation plan. Through this activity, I could learn how people work in teams and collaborate with each other for execution of multiple activities that are interrelated. I was able to develop and refine my team work skills.

Planning: This project demanded an extensive planning considering all the decision elements such as project objectives, community needs, funding availability, stakeholder perspectives, and more. I could understand how important is planning for execution of any large scale projects and how simulation during the planning stage can actually help minimize risks on a project. The project outcomes and impacts on various stakeholders were assessed during the project such that the predictions could be made on them based on the project plan. Thus, a planner must have the skill of foreseeing things and understanding how different decisions can affect various aspects of the project. Planning was also done for stakeholder communication. Thus, through this, I could develop the skill of professional planning with consideration of project requirements and stakeholder needs (Murray, 2002).

Simulation for Stakeholder Needs Fulfilment

Data Analysis: We collected a lot of different types of data from the stakeholders and project documentation which could affect our decisions on the dam construction plan. This data was related to production capacities of dam, community involvement, budget, development requirements, environmental considerations, employment generation, public displacement, and more. The data obtained had to be carefully analysed based on the project outcomes and stakeholder requirement fulfilment to come with options for the construction project plan. This helped me understand how large scale data can be analysed for taking decisions. Thus, I developed the skill of decision oriented data analysis on this project (Brown & Grey, 2016). 

Action analysis

On the project, we had to take some major decisions on the project about investments, site location, and community development. A lot of brainstorming was done involving all the team members for understanding stakeholder requirements and identifying strategies for their fulfilment (Buchanan & Keefe, 2001). However, there were some actions that we had planned initially for the project but could not execute such as:

• We had planned to understand the stakeholders from individual perspectives rather than just exploring their needs from their professional profile point of views but we could not do that because of limitations of time and we had to rely on brainstorming session while gauging their needs(Asser, 2016)
• The team had also thought of exploring the impact of project development on the project organization from the profit point of view considering sponsors as one of the key stakeholders but most analysis done was operational and community impact based(Albrecht, 2010). 

Learning

The activities I participated on the project helped me gain some learning on project management, simulation and professional development such as:

• The nature and needs of individual stakeholder affect the decisions about the project as their buy-in is needed for the project before execution as it would only get acceptance from them
• If the project stakeholder needs are not understood carefully and addressed then it can lead to major conflicts. Thus, it is important that stakeholders are understood from the perspectives of their responsibilities, preferences, influences and behavioural attitudes.
• A communication strategy for the stakeholders must have considerations of the individual needs, availability and influences of the stakeholders to be effective on the project and deliver desired results(CHRISTENSON & WALKER, 2001).
• When decision elements are many, it is important that team members understand each other and have considerations for each other’s point of views such that decisions can be arrived at with objective considerations without facing major conflicts.
• More the number of stakeholders on a project, more are the chances that their interests and needs conflict with each other and thus, no project decision can completely satisfy all stakeholders and have to do some level of compromise. Thus, the aim should always be to ensure that most stakeholder needs are addressed.
• The knowledge and skill of  project team members can affect the performance of a project and thus, team must be well prepared for handling all project aspects before beginning it
• Individual and group reflections on conducted activities can lead to a great learning for everyone working on a project
• Simulation projects work on many assumptions and fictional variations as real people cannot be included on the project thus, it only provides a close to real scenario experience but since it cannot completely replace the real experience situation, there can be challenges in understanding the practical aspects of the project(SAE, 2014).

Log books

Critical incident diaries

Feedback

The tutor gave me following feedback on the project and my learning experience:

• I was able to coordinate well with the team but I needed to become more of a person who could take initiation for which I need to develop more on my knowledge
• I was told that I am good at identifying skills of others and delegating tasks accordingly but I took less of responsibilities for self which I need to do if I want to have a greater practical learning on any subject 

References

Albrecht, M. C. (., 2010. Introduction to Discrete Event Simulation, s.l.: albrechts.

Asser, M., 2016. Hydroelectric Dam Laos – The Intercultural: Stakeholder Engagement Simulation, s.l.: Ososim Limited .

Brown, S. & Grey, S., 2016. Hydroelectric Dam Laos: The Intercultural – Stakeholder Engagement Simulation. s.l., Ososim Limited .

Buchanan, C. & Keefe, K., 2001. Simulation Debugging and Visualization in the M¨obius Modeling Framework, s.l.: Illinois University.

Chetcuti, H. R., 2008. ERP Implementation: A multi-stakeholder analysis of critical success factors. Malta, WICT PROCEEDINGS.

CHRISTENSON, D. & WALKER, D. H., 2001. VISION AS A CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR TO PROJECT OUTCOMES , s.l.: ESSR.

Craxton, C., Blacklock, K. & Ivanov, I. T., 2014. Stakeholder Engagement Plan KRUMOVGRAD GOLD PROJECT, s.l.: DUNDEE.

Gaborit, C., 2015. How to influence your stakeholders, s.l.: The Learning Factor.

Griffiths, J., Maggs, H. & George, E., 2007. ‘Stakeholder Involvement’ , s.l.: WHO.

GSM London, 2017. Introduction to the Hydro Laos Simulation, London: James Milne & Oil Consultancy Limited.

H.T.Walker, D., Bourne, L. & Rowlinson, S., 2007. Stakeholders and the supply chain, s.l.: CiteSeer.

Kemper, P., 2009. Data Analysis and Simulation, s.l.: CSWM Education.

Kushta, V. V., 2012. STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT PLAN : CONSTRUCTION OF BIOGAS PRODUCTION SYSTEM, GLOBYNO, POLTAVA REGION: ASTARA.

La Trobe University, 2017. Video 3: Stakeholder Engagement and Management. [Online]
Available at: https://lms.latrobe.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=2493632&chapterid=201713
[Accessed 14 September 2017].

Moon, J., 2003. Learning journals and logs, Reflective Diaries , s.l.: University of Exeter .

Murray, G., 2002. Handbook for Preparing a Resettlement Action Plan, s.l.: The International Finance Corporation (IFC).

SAE, 2014. WRITING A REFLECTIVE LOGBOOK , s.l.: SAE.

University of Birhingham, 2014. A short guide to reflective writing, s.l.: University of Birhingham.

Watton, P., Collings, J. & Moon, J., 2001. Reflective Writing , s.l.: University of Exeter.

WPIC, 2013. STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT TOOLS for ACTION, s.l.: Western and Pacific Child Welfare Implementatio Center.