Who are the project participants?

Question

In project management, who are the project participants? Are they the project stakeholders, are they the project team members, or are they all the people that work on the project or are affected directly or indirectly by the project?

Answer 1

The project participants consist of all the individuals entities who either:

- Work on the project directly, such as team members, consultants, contractors, and the sub-contractors.
- Influence the project directly such as the internal project stakeholders (including functional managers and executives), the project sponsor, and the customer/client.

The difference between project stakeholders and project participants is that the former include the individuals/entities who have indirectly a stake in the success of the project (such as the end users) while the latter doesn't.

Usually, the project participants are all listed in the project management hierarchy of the project (see: http://www.projectmanagementquestions.com/915/what-is-project-management-hierarchy ).