Guidelines for Identifying Stakeholders
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- Purpose:
- To list all of the entities having a vested interest in the performance of the HS Agency and the IT Division. This list is developed for three reasons:
i. To identify the scope of the Strategic Plan
ii. To identify and rank the list of stakeholders for the HS Agency and the IT Division
iii. To make certain that the strategic planning activities include the perspective of all of the major stakeholders
- Instructions:
- Column 1 lists the stakeholder entities. The following types of entities can be listed in the stakeholder list:
i. External stakeholders
1. Federal agencies that fund or regulate HS Agency programs (e.g., Health and Human Services and Department of Agriculture)
2. Other State agencies that may regulate either IT or HS Agency processes, or supply data or services to the HS Agency (CIO office may set standards for IT; Department of Justice is required to get child support or custody rulings.)
3. Private Corporations that supply services (e.g., bank that does EBT or vendor(s) that maintains the current IT environment)
4. Principle Service Contractor that is responsible for the administration of an entire program such as Child Welfare
5. Special interest groups or advocates that represent clients
6. State legislative committees that review potential legislation that will impact the HS Agency
7. Local government entities (e.g., County, City, Township, Consortia) that provide services directly to clients
8. Agencies in other states that perform similar functions (e.g., HS Agencies in neighboring states)
ii. Internal Stakeholders
1. Each of the program offices in the HS Agency
2. Caseworkers in the field
3. HS Agency management
4. Procurement offices (these could be either internal or external. If the HS Agency has its own procurement office, they would be internal; if a State procurement office is used, they would be external.)
iii. IT Stakeholders
1. IT management
2. IT support personnel
3. IT development and maintenance staff
- Column 2 identifies the stakeholder group (see the generic role descriptions for examples):
i. External stakeholders are entities external to the HS Agency.
ii. Internal stakeholders are entities inside the HS Agency but outside the IT Division.
iii. IT stakeholders are entities inside the IT Division.
- Column 3 defines the relative importance (i.e., priority) of the stakeholders to one another. Stakeholders are ranked based on the impact and influence they have on the HS Agency. Possible rankings are:
i. Principal Impact Stakeholders - exert significant influence and impact of HS Agency actions, such as determining regulations or funding. This could include Federal Agencies such as HHS and the State Legislatures.
ii. Principle Support Stakeholders - perform a function that is critical to the current HS Agency mission. This could include principal support contractors, banks providing EBT, or County HS Agencies.
iii. Significant Influence Stakeholders - includes special interest groups or advocates.
- A brainstorming session can be used to generate the information for this worksheet. Pre-existing lists may be useful (e.g., those prepared for the Y2K efforts).
- Example (TANF)