As a stakeholder manager, you are constantly making agreements with the people around you: residents, business owners and other stakeholders. In Dialog, you record these agreements as stakeholder requirements.
This means that you and your team always know what has been promised and to whom, and no agreement is overlooked.
What is a stakeholder requirement?
A stakeholder requirement is an agreement you make with a stakeholder, or a requirement that a stakeholder sets for the project. For example, a resident who wants to be able to continue using their driveway, or a business owner who wants their shop to remain accessible.
Examples of stakeholder requirements:
- Residents on Dorpsstraat can always drive in and out of their driveways during the works.
- The bakery on the corner maintains a clear pedestrian route of at least 1.5 metres to the entrance.
- No piling takes place during the Sunday service at the church next to the work site.
- The farmer on Polderweg can reach their fields with their machinery during the harvest period.
A stakeholder requirement is therefore an agreement with the people around you. By recording it and linking it to the relevant stakeholders, everyone on your team knows what has been agreed and with whom.
How do you create a stakeholder requirement?
- In the left-hand menu, go to Organise > Requirements and click + Add requirement in the top-right corner of the overview.
- Give the stakeholder requirement a short, clear title.
- In the description, describe exactly what has been agreed.
- Link the stakeholders involved in the agreement.
- Click Save.
Tip: you can also create a stakeholder requirement from anywhere in Dialog using the Create new button in the left-hand menu.
After saving, you can find the stakeholder requirement in the overview. Click it to open it and add more details, such as a theme.
Because you link the stakeholder requirement to stakeholders, you can also see for each stakeholder which agreements you have made with them.
How do you organise your stakeholder requirements?
The more agreements you make, the more important it is to maintain an overview. In Dialog, you do this using stakeholders and themes.
Link each stakeholder requirement to the relevant stakeholders. This lets you immediately see which agreements you have made with a stakeholder. This is useful just before you call them or have a kitchen-table meeting.
Organise your stakeholder requirements using themes. Group related agreements together, such as accessibility, noise nuisance, traffic or safety. This lets you see which agreements apply to each subject.
Record agreements straight away. Create a stakeholder requirement as soon as the agreement has been made, for example immediately after a conversation. This ensures that nothing is lost and your team is immediately informed.
Work as a team from one overview. Everyone who speaks to people in the community can see what has already been promised. This prevents colleagues from contradicting one another or making duplicate agreements.
Include the agreements in the implementation. Review the agreements in place for each theme, for example when preparing for an implementation meeting. This ensures that the work schedule also takes into account what you have promised the people around you.
Tips for working with stakeholder requirements
- Make agreements specific. “As little disruption as possible” is difficult to comply with, whereas “no work before 7.00 am” is clear. The more specific the agreement, the easier it is to keep.
- Split compound agreements. Are there several agreements in one stakeholder requirement? Create separate stakeholder requirements for them so that you can keep better track of each one.
- Choose a recognisable title. Summarise the agreement in a few words so that you can quickly find it in the overview.
- Agree on set themes. Decide with your team which themes you will use. This keeps the overview tidy and helps everyone find everything quickly.
- Make the agreement traceable. Link the contact moment when and how the agreement was made, for example during a residents’ meeting or kitchen-table meeting.
- Review your stakeholder requirements regularly. For example, before each new phase of the work, so that no agreement is lost in the rush.
- Keep track of changes. Has an agreement changed? Update the stakeholder requirement immediately and mention in the description what has changed and why.