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Finding the Right Client Stakeholders

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In this lesson, you will learn:

  • The kinds of stakeholders a Discovery project needs
  • What you need from each one
  • How to spot who can block the project

🔁 Quick look back: Last time: Checking Pattern Content and MID Compatibility. You learned how to check pattern content and MID Server versions.

1 The Problem: The Wrong People Are in the Room

On a past project, kickoff had ten managers and no network engineer. Two weeks later:

  • Nobody had asked for firewall rules.
  • Security heard about the scans from a firewall alert.

🎯 The problem: When the wrong people are in the room, key work never starts.

👉 The fix: Build a stakeholder list that covers every kind of help Discovery needs.

Table of stakeholder types with SNWR names and what you need.
Figure 1. The Clear View stakeholder list.

2 Kinds of stakeholders

  1. Sponsor. Pays for the project and signs gates.
  2. Client lead. Your day-to-day partner and main decision maker.
  3. Providers. Give you servers, network access and accounts.
  4. Approvers. Security and change. They can stop a scan.
  5. Data users. The people who will use the CMDB data.
  6. Platform owner. Looks after the instances.

⭐ Remember: Approvers can block the whole project. Meet them first, not last.

3 For each person, write down

  • What you need from them, and by when.
  • How much time they have.
  • How they like to be contacted.
  • Whether they’re keen, worried or neutral.

4 Project Clear View: How We Implemented It

📍 Situation: You have a people map from Hana. Now you need to invite the right people to kickoff.

🧭 Decision: Turn the people map into a stakeholder list, and make sure every type is covered.

🛠️ Steps we took:

  1. Sorted each person into a type: sponsor, lead, provider, approver, data user, platform.
  2. Wrote what you need from each, with a week.
  3. Met Farah and Mei for 15 minutes each before kickoff.
  4. Invited everyone on the list to kickoff, with Oliver joining from London.

✅ What we verified:

  • Every type has at least one named person.
  • Farah and Mei already know the plan before kickoff.

📁 Evidence: The Clear View stakeholder list, part of the kickoff pack.

5 Quick recap

  • A Discovery project needs a sponsor, a lead, providers, approvers, data users and a platform owner.
  • Write what you need from each person, and by when.
  • Meet approvers early. They can block the project.
  • Invite every type to kickoff.

6 Check yourself

Think of your answer first. Then tap to check.

1 Who are the approvers on Clear View? Show answer

Farah Siddiqui (security) and Mei Chen (change).

2 Why meet approvers before kickoff? Show answer

They can stop scans. Involving them early avoids surprises.

3 Which stakeholder type gives you firewall rules? Show answer

A provider. At SNWR, that’s Ravi Iyer.

Nice work! You have the right people on Clear View. 🎉
Next up: Preparing the Kickoff Pack

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