Stakeholders are a major source of uncertainty in projects. This uncertainty encompasses who relevant stakeholders are, how they could influence a project, and what their motives are in so far as their actions affect project activity. A generic project uncertainty management process framework is employed to provide a structure for a review of approaches to analysing stakeholders and related uncertainty management issues. This framework, the SHAMPU (Shape, Harness, and Manage Project Uncertainty) process, consists of nine phases: project definition, focusing the uncertainty management process, identifying sources of uncertainty, structuring issues, clarifying ownership, estimating variability, evaluating implications of uncertainty, harnessing plans, and managing implementation. A variety of approaches to stakeholder analysis are considered in relation to these phases. In particular, characterizing projects on a 'hard-soft' spectrum suggests generic strategies for managing stakeholder expectations and fostering trust between stakeholders. An important conclusion is that a systematic approach to stakeholder management is facilitated by the use of project uncertainty management processes that distinguish different stages of the project life cycle.Project management, risk management, stakeholder, uncertainty,
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.