Who are the primary stakeholders?

Question

I just read the term "primary stakeholder". Who are the primary stakeholders, are they the most important stakeholders? The internal stakeholders?

And since there are primary stakeholders, do we also have secondary stakeholders?

Answer 1

Primary stakeholders are those stakeholders that match the two following characteristics (both of them):

- They are directly affected by the outcome of the project
- They can directly affect the project

Project managers have to constantly update the primary stakeholders about the project and always keep them in the loop so that they can immediately intervene if something happens.

In most projects, there are three primary stakeholders:

- The client/customer
- The project sponsor
- The project owner

Primary stakeholders have usually high power and high interest in the project, see the stakeholder power/interest grid here: http://www.projectmanagementquestions.com/1251/an-example-of-a-stakeholder-power-interest-grid

There is no such thing as secondary stakeholders.