Three Perspectives on a Project

Abstract

Project stakeholders are individuals, groups and organizations who are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected as a consequence of project execution or project completion. Usually many groups of stakeholders, external and internal, are associated with a project, ranging from those directly involved to those indirectly affected. Government agencies may be involved as initiators, commissioners or regulators. Owners and funders will have a major stake in the project; contractors and suppliers are responsible for carrying out what is agreed; there is a market and users who will use the product of the project; and there are the media outlets, individual citizens, lobbying organizations and society at large concerned about the outcome and impact of the project. That said, in this chapter, we will focus on three main stakeholders: the commissioner, the contractor and the users.

The most general criterion against which a project is assessed is the degree to which it is considered successful. Different stakeholders will have different perspectives and interests and often conclude differently in assessing the same project. This chapter discusses three main perspectives associated with the three main stakeholders: the contractors, the users and the commissioners.

Too few people on a project can’t solve the problems – too

many create more problems than they can solve.

–Anon