Project Management

Managing the Project Interfaces 201

tion, you’re perceived as being on the same level of power.
Project leaders get most things done through this method.

Project Manager’s Checklist for Chapter

❏ Your project exists within an environment that includes

many points of interface.

❏ Any one of a number of characteristics can make someone

a stakeholder in your project. There may be many more

stakeholders than you might think.

❏ You need to actively manage stakeholder relationships.

❏ Learn as much as you can about every stakeholder. This

will help you manage your relationship with them more

effectively.

❏ Project sponsors can be extremely helpful. Go out and find

one if one doesn’t come to you.

❏ Beware of external suppliers, subcontractors, and consult-

ants; typically, they don’t assume a particularly strong

sense of stake in the outcome of your project.

❏ Non-people interfaces—such as policies, procedures, orga-

nizational culture, and politics—are key interfaces, just as

important and influential as the people interfaces.