Stakeholder Onion Diagram: A Practical Guide
/STAKEHOLDER ONION DIAGRAM - Includes Free Template
Knowledge Area: Business Analysis Planning & Monitoring
Applicable Task: Conduct Stakeholder Analysis
Useful When: Identifying stakeholders involved in your project. Helps the BA determine which stakeholders will directly interact with a system or process and those outside the organization.
I’ll use the customer ordering system example. The Stakeholder onion diagram would look like this:
Stakeholder Onion Diagram of a Customer Ordering System
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
To develop a Stakeholder Onion Diagram, identify the following categories of stakeholders:
Layer 1: Stakeholders closely involved in the creation of the product, which could be a new system or a new process. Stakeholders may include the project manager, software developer, business analyst, etc
Layer 2: Stakeholders whose work changes when the solution is defined. For example, end users.
Layer 3: Sponsors, executives and subject matter experts who interact closely with the system
Layer 4: External Stakeholders such as customers, regulators, government, suppliers and the like.
An editable template of the stakeholder diagram can be downloaded here.
User story maps are an interesting and collaborative way of eliciting user requirements. One of the reasons why I find it so powerful is because it provides a unique approach for aligning discussions relating to the user, their goals, the process that supports the accomplishment of their predefined goals; and the requirements that need to be addressed to solve business problems.