According to the PMBOKGuide (Project Management Body of Knowledge), specifically within the Project Stakeholder Management knowledge area, the failure to recognize a stakeholder ' s needs usually stems from a breakdown in the initial identification phase:
* Identify Stakeholders (Option B): This is the process of identifying project stakeholders regularly and analyzing and documenting relevant information regarding their interests, involvement, interdependencies, influence, and potential impact on project success. A key output of this process is the Stakeholder Register, which should include their major requirements and expectations. If a project manager is unaware of a stakeholder ' s need, it most likely means that either the stakeholder was not identified at all or their specific needs and expectations were not properly captured during this initial process.
* Plan Stakeholder Engagement (Option A): This process focuses on developing approaches to involve stakeholders based on their needs, interests, and impact. You cannot plan for an engagement strategy if the underlying need has not been identified first.
* Manage Stakeholder Engagement (Option C): This is the execution process of communicating and working with stakeholders to meet their needs/expectations and foster appropriate stakeholder engagement. While this is where you might discover the missed need, the root cause of " missing " the need is a failure in the identification/analysis step.
* Monitor Stakeholder Engagement (Option D): (Note: Formerly " Control Stakeholder Engagement " in older editions). This is the process of monitoring project stakeholder relationships and tailoring strategies for engaging stakeholders. This process is used to look for variances in engagement, not for the primary collection of requirements.
In the PMI framework, Identify Stakeholders is an iterative process that should happen throughout the project.
If a new need surfaces that was " not known, " it indicates the Project Manager needs to revisit the Stakeholder Register and update the stakeholder ' s profile.