Build a Stakeholder Map Before Starting a New Project

Projects fail for stakeholder reasons more often than technical ones. The key players are not always the obvious ones: the person without authority who can slow progress, the person who feels left out and acts accordingly, the person who knows why the last version failed. This maps them across five categories before the work starts, then identifies the one relationship that most needs investment first.

I am about to start {PROJECT}. Help me build a stakeholder map before I get into the work. For each category of stakeholder, list the questions I should be asking: who has authority to change scope, who can derail it without formal authority, who needs to feel consulted even if they are not decision-makers, who will be affected by the outcome but is not in the room, and who knows the history of similar efforts and why they failed. After I answer, help me identify the one stakeholder relationship I most need to invest in before the project starts.