Missing Stakeholders

What Happens When You Miss Stakeholders?

Failing to identify all stakeholders can lead to overlooked data flows, causing critical gaps in the target system. These gaps often result in new work packages, increased costs, and project delays when discovered late.

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Example 1: In a healthcare system implementation, the pharmacy department was not included as stakeholders. The system was designed to handle patient records and doctor workflows but missed integrating the medication dispensing data flow.

During user acceptance testing, the pharmacy flagged that they couldn’t track prescriptions tied to patient records. This oversight required:

• Redesigning the target state to include pharmacy workflows and data flows.

• Additional development for real-time prescription tracking.

• Delays of three months to test and integrate the changes.

Had the pharmacy been included early on, their data flow needs would have been identified, saving time and resources while ensuring a seamless solution.

Example 2: In a project to develop a financial reporting system, the tax compliance team was not included as stakeholders. The system was designed to automate financial reporting but didn’t account for specific tax filing requirements and workflows managed by the compliance team.

During final review, it was discovered that:

• Key tax data wasn’t integrated into the reporting system.

• Separate workflows for tax filings couldn’t be automated as initially planned.

This led to:

• New work packages to redesign data flows for tax integration.

• Additional development for compliance workflows.

• Delays of six weeks and higher costs to cover the unplanned work.

If the tax compliance team had been included during the requirements phase, their critical needs would have been captured, preventing these disruptions.