Managing Project Stakeholder Expectations; Four Principles

Managing stakeholder expectations can be the most challenging part of a project manager's job (and is often cited as such in surveys). This is especially true when everyone wants their needs met, and some of those needs are unrealistic, unreasonable, or just aren't appropriate.

Allan Holmes has written a excellent article in CIO magazine about how to manage even the most difficult and demanding of stakeholders. He boils it down to four key principles:

1) Define Expectations Internally
2) Establish Rules of Engagement
3) Deal with Doubters
4) Not everything is negotiable

See the full article below for a good case study and an explanation of these principles and how they're used.

The Four (Not Three, Not Five) Principles of Managing Expectations - Editorial - CIO