What is Stakeholder Analysis? Definition, Steps, Examples and Template

Stakeholder analysis is the process of identifying, categorising, and prioritising individuals or groups with an interest in or influence over a project, then using that insight to plan appropriate communication and engagement strategies. 

It is one of the most critical steps in project management, helping teams reduce risk, build trust and deliver better outcomes by ensuring no key voice is overlooked.

At Tractivity, the UK stakeholder relationship management platform, we break this into four stages: identify, categorise, prioritise and keep it live. We call it Tractivity's four-stage stakeholder analysis method. The first three are the standard sequence. The fourth is what stops an analysis from going stale once the project starts.

We also provide a free stakeholder analysis template you can download and use immediately for any project.

The template covers all the core fields you need to get started: stakeholder name and group, type (key, primary or secondary), interest and influence levels, key concerns, preferred engagement approach and assigned owner. It's suitable for any sector or project size and can be used as a standalone document or as the starting point for a more structured stakeholder management process. Download the free template here. 

What is stakeholder analysis?

Stakeholder analysis is the process of identifying and collecting information about individuals or groups impacted by or able to influence your project.

Modern stakeholder analysis increasingly involves co-creation, where stakeholders actively participate in shaping project goals and outcomes, and digital tools that streamline communication and engagement.

Conducting a stakeholder analysis will enable you to identify all your stakeholders as well as their needs and expectations, forming the foundation of an effective stakeholder engagement plan.

Tractivity takeaway: An analysis is only as useful as the record behind it. Keep it in the same place you log engagement, and it stays current instead of going stale in a spreadsheet.

Why is stakeholder analysis important?

Every stakeholder has a different perspective on a project and on the change it is intended to deliver. Without a structured analysis, organisations risk misallocating resources, missing critical voices and facing preventable opposition.

Stakeholder analysis helps you:

• identify key stakeholders before engagement begins
• understand stakeholder needs and expectations
• recognise supporters and potential opponents early
• plan appropriate engagement and communication strategies

With this understanding, you can allocate time and effort more effectively, reduce risk, and address issues before they affect project outcomes.

Benefits of stakeholder analysis

Conducting a stakeholder analysis supports your team in six key ways:

• Being inclusive
  Ensuring all individuals and groups affected by the project are systematically identified and considered, reducing the risk of overlooking critical voices.
• Engaging effectively
  Grouping stakeholders to plan targeted communications that improve positive engagement outcomes.
• Promoting understanding and alignment
  Building trust by clarifying project goals and benefits with the right audiences.
• Anticipating issues
  Identifying potential problems and opposition early, so mitigating actions can be planned.
• Gaining insights
  Capturing stakeholder perspectives that improve decision-making and final outcomes.
• Building trust
  Demonstrating transparency and accountability by incorporating stakeholder feedback into the process.

Stakeholder analysis in project management

Projects that lack engagement with influential stakeholders often struggle, not because of technical failure, but because of avoidable people problems.

If a project is already in motion and facing difficulty, stakeholder analysis can help reassess issues and identify corrective actions. Ideally, however, it should begin in the early stages of a project to reduce the risk of failure.

Stakeholder analysis should also be repeated throughout longer projects, as stakeholder interests and influence can change over time. The frequency of analysis should reflect the duration and complexity of the project.

Tractivity takeaway: On a new project, run the first three stages before the first public announcement, then load the result into the system you'll log engagement in. That first analysis becomes the baseline you evidence against later, and stage four keeps it current.

What are the key steps in stakeholder analysis?

Stakeholder analysis follows four stages in Tractivity's four-stage stakeholder analysis method: identify, categorise, prioritise and keep it live. Many guides stop at the first three. We add the fourth because stakeholders change, priorities shift and engagement history ends up mattering as much as the first categorisation. Once complete, you'll have the insights needed to plan communications and create a stakeholder engagement plan.

Many organisations use stakeholder management software to keep stakeholder information centralised, track influence and engagement over time and keep analysis connected to day-to-day decisions.

1. Stakeholder identification

The first step is identifying who your stakeholders are. This includes anyone who is impacted by, has an interest in, or can influence your project. Stakeholders may include individuals, groups, or organisations such as:

• employees and internal teams
• clients and investors
• suppliers and partners
• regulators and government bodies
• media organisations
• local communities and residents

Ways to identify stakeholders include brainstorming with your team, reviewing stakeholders from past projects, consulting colleagues about overlapping initiatives, and researching similar projects in the market.

When identifying stakeholders, consider factors that may influence their perspective, such as age, location, values, income and political, financial or business interests. Engaging directly with stakeholders to understand their expectations and concerns will improve the quality of your analysis.

2. Stakeholder categorisation

Once stakeholders are identified, they should be grouped based on shared characteristics, interests, or influence. Two commonly used models are:

The Interest/Influence Matrix

The Interest/Influence Matrix assesses stakeholders based on their level of interest in the project and their ability to influence it. This helps determine appropriate engagement approaches for each group.

For example, in a major infrastructure project, local residents may have high interest but relatively low influence over decision-making. Regulatory bodies, by contrast, typically have both high interest and high influence, requiring very different engagement strategies. The matrix helps teams visualise these differences and plan accordingly. Plotting stakeholders on this matrix is what's known as stakeholder mapping. For a step-by-step method and a ready-to-use grid, see our free stakeholder mapping guide and template. 

Stakeholder analysis example using the Interest/Influence Matrix:

The Salience Model

The Salience Model categorises stakeholders using three attributes: power, legitimacy, and urgency.

By assessing each stakeholder against these three dimensions, the model identifies eight distinct stakeholder types, from 'dormant' stakeholders who hold power but lack urgency, to 'definitive' stakeholders who score highly on all three and demand immediate attention.

In the energy sector, for example, a local environmental group might have high legitimacy and urgency around a new development, but limited formal power, placing them in the 'dependent' category and signalling the need for consultation rather than co-decision-making.

You can learn in more detail about both categorisation models and how to apply them in our Guide to categorising stakeholders.

Stakeholder types

Stakeholders generally fall into one of three categories:

• Key stakeholders
  Individuals or groups with high influence and a direct impact on project outcomes.
• Primary stakeholders
  Those most affected by the project, either positively or negatively.
• Secondary stakeholders
  Individuals or organisations indirectly affected, with lower levels of interest or influence.
  
  

3. Stakeholder prioritisation

Not all stakeholder needs can be addressed at the same time, making prioritisation essential. Stakeholders may require different levels of stakeholder engagement:

• Inform: provide timely and relevant information
• Consult: seek feedback and input
• Involve: work with stakeholders to shape plans and options
• Collaborate: make stakeholders partners in decision-making

Priorities will vary depending on project scope, timelines, available resources, and stakeholder expectations and concerns. A transport project, for example, might prioritise community residents for consultation while collaborating closely with planning authorities throughout.

4. Keep it live

Stakeholder analysis starts going out of date the moment a project moves. Keeping it live means updating each stakeholder's interest, influence and sentiment as engagement happens, and re-running prioritisation at every milestone, so the analysis you act on shows where people stand now, not where they stood at kick-off.

In practice, that comes down to three habits:

• log every interaction against the stakeholder it relates to, so a shift in position shows up as it happens
• review the analysis at each project phase or milestone, and whenever a new issue or stakeholder appears
• keep the history, so you can show who you engaged, when and what changed if a regulator, inquiry or board asks

Tractivity takeaway: On long programmes this is the stage that matters most. EDF has logged 130,000+ stakeholder engagements with 70,000+ contacts across Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C in Tractivity, a record no one-off spreadsheet could hold.

How teams do this in Tractivity

What does a stakeholder analysis example look like?

Seeing stakeholder analysis applied in practice makes the process far clearer. Here are three brief examples across sectors that Tractivity commonly supports:

Infrastructure project (Transport)

On a transport scheme, the highways authority is high interest and high influence, so it gets close collaboration. Residents along the route are high interest but low influence, so public consultation events fit better. A logistics operator affected by road closures is high interest and high influence too, so it’s brought into planning early. Mapping stakeholders this way turns a long list into a clear engagement plan.

Energy sector

A renewable energy company planning an offshore wind installation uses the Salience Model to identify a local fishing collective as a 'dependent' stakeholder. High legitimacy and urgency, but limited formal power. Rather than informing them after decisions are made, the team introduces the group to the planning process early, avoiding a later legal challenge that had derailed a similar project in the region.

NHS Healthcare Trust

A healthcare trust launching a new patient pathway service maps its stakeholders ahead of rollout. Patient advocacy groups, GP networks, and ICB (Integrated Care Board) commissioners are all identified. The analysis reveals that GP networks, initially treated as secondary stakeholders, have significant informal influence over patient uptake. Engagement strategy is revised accordingly, with dedicated briefings and feedback loops introduced.

What should a stakeholder analysis include?

A stakeholder analysis should capture seven fields for every stakeholder or group: name, type (key, primary or secondary), level of interest, level of influence, key concerns, the right engagement approach (inform, consult or collaborate) and an owner for the next action. Skip any of these and the analysis tends to stay a one-off spreadsheet instead of feeding live decisions.

It should include:

• Stakeholder name/group
• Type (key/primary/secondary)
• Level of interest (low/medium/high)
• Level of influence (low/medium/high)
• Key interests and concerns
• Preferred engagement approach (inform/consult/collaborate)
• Assigned owner and next action

For small projects with limited stakeholders, a Word or Excel template may be sufficient. For larger, more complex projects, a dedicated stakeholder management platform adds real-time updates, secure data storage and engagement tracking in one place.

Tractivity takeaway: The seven fields above are the columns in our free template, and they map onto a stakeholder record in Tractivity when the spreadsheet stops coping.

Here's a stakeholder analysis example:

Download your free stakeholder analysis template here:

What happens after a stakeholder analysis?

A stakeholder analysis tells you who matters and how much. The next step is turning it into a stakeholder engagement plan: what you'll do with each group, through which channels, how often, and how you'll capture and respond to what comes back. The analysis sets the priorities. The plan puts them into action.

What goes into the engagement plan

Our stakeholder engagement plan guide sets out 12 sections. The ones your analysis feeds directly are:

• Stakeholder mapping: the categories and priorities from stages two and three

• Engagement activities: what you'll do with each group, from newsletters to workshops

• Timetable, resources and responsibilities: who leads each activity, and when

• Grievance management: how complaints and concerns are received, logged and answered

• Monitoring and reporting: how you'll show what was done and what changed as a result
  

Match the engagement level to each group

Prioritisation gives every group an engagement level, and there are four: inform, consult, involve and collaborate. Inform is one-way. Consult asks for views on options you've set. Involve brings people into shaping the work, and collaborate makes them partners in decisions. Our guide to the levels of stakeholder engagement explains how to choose between them, and our stakeholder communication guide covers what to say at each level.

Manage feedback and issues as they come in

Engagement creates a steady flow of responses: questions, concerns, complaints and commitments made in meetings. Each one needs an owner and an answer. In practice:

• log every piece of feedback against the stakeholder who raised it, with the date and project phase

• categorise it by issue, so recurring concerns show up early

• assign an owner and track it until it's closed

• record what you committed to, and when you delivered it

• feed what you learn back into the analysis, so priorities move when positions do

That record is also your evidence if a regulator, planning inspector or court asks how you responded.

Tractivity takeaway: In Tractivity, complaints, grievances, project feedback and Freedom of Information requests are handled in the Enquiries module, date-stamped and categorised by project phase, issue, source, sentiment and account handler. Issues and commitments are tracked against the stakeholder record, so nothing raised in a meeting is forgotten. See how community feedback management works.

How engagement differs by sector

The method stays the same across sectors. What changes is the scrutiny your record has to survive.

• Government and the public sector: consultation has to meet the legal tests for fairness, and the record can be requested under Freedom of Information or examined in a judicial review. Read how government agencies manage stakeholder engagement and consultation.

• Utilities: large customer and community bases, price-control evidence for Ofwat and Ofgem, and fast communication when an incident hits. Read our guide to stakeholder relationship management in utilities.

• Renewable energy infrastructure: long programmes, landowners and host communities, and statutory consultation for nationally significant projects under the Planning Act 2008. Read our guide to renewable energy stakeholder management.

Stakeholder analysis tools

Word, Excel, or PowerPoint templates may suit small projects with limited data. For more complex projects, purpose-built stakeholder analysis tools provide significant advantages.

How Tractivity supports stakeholder analysis

Tractivity, the UK stakeholder relationship management platform, is used by 100+ named UK clients across ten sectors, including energy, transport, healthcare and the public sector. National Grid has 500+ users on it. It supports all four stages of stakeholder analysis in one place:

• Centralised stakeholder records: all contacts, organisations, and relationships held in a single, searchable database
• Influence and interest tracking: map stakeholders visually and update their status as projects evolve
• Engagement history: every interaction, consultation response, and communication logged against each stakeholder record
• Team collaboration: multiple users across departments can contribute to and access the same analysis in real time
• Data security: ISO 27001:2022, Cyber Essentials Plus and NHS DSPT, hosted on Microsoft Azure

Unlike a spreadsheet, Tractivity ensures that stakeholder analysis stays connected to day-to-day engagement activity, so insights aren't lost between project phases and teams aren't starting from scratch at each review.

Key takeaways

• Stakeholder analysis follows four stages in Tractivity's method: identify, categorise, prioritise and keep it live

• The Interest/Influence Matrix and Salience Model are the two most widely used categorisation frameworks

• Keeping it live matters most: update the analysis as engagement happens and review it at every milestone, not just at the start

• Different stakeholders require different engagement levels: inform, consult, involve or collaborate

• Software tools like Tractivity centralise stakeholder data and track engagement over time, keeping analysis connected to real-world activity

• After the analysis comes the engagement plan: activities, timetable, grievance handling and reporting, built on the priorities you've set

Streamline your stakeholder analysis with Tractivity

Stakeholder analysis is an essential component of effective stakeholder management. But its value is only realised when the insights it generates are acted upon consistently.

Tractivity is a comprehensive stakeholder management platform that supports the analysis, mapping and engagement of stakeholders in one place. It helps teams across departments and projects manage data securely, track engagement over time and keep their analysis connected to day-to-day activity.

Get in touch for a live preview of our stakeholder engagement system and discover a better way to analyse and engage with your stakeholders.