As test professionals, do we focus too much on those that directly use the product?
As test professionals, do we focus too much on those that directly use the product? Forgetting about other stakeholders that may be involved..
In terms of what other stakeholders could be involved, let’s use an example, such as a Human Resources (HR) product, where you can book your absence, performance reviews and other things. The direct users would be employees within the company that would do these tasks, such as booking their absence. The indirect users would be the people that buy the HR product for the employees to use. Then there are other stakeholders, such as people that try to sell the product to the indirect users. Or a stakeholder could be those that support or develop the product.
I googled stakeholders in product development and it came up with the following.
“A stakeholder is anyone who has an interest in the product, can influence product decisions, or is affected by the outcome and deliverables of your work. Stakeholders are not limited to your team. Customers, board members, and investors can also be part of your stakeholder analysis.”
External and internal stakeholders
There was one article I was reading that stated external stakeholders, internal stakeholders and product drivers. There is a paper here you can read that has more detail and a diagram depicting the different types.
Brainstorm the external and internal stakeholders
I feel that I have, at times, focused a lot on the direct users and forgotten about the indirect users. So I feel to get out of that tunnel vision it would be useful to brainstorm with your team on what the stakeholders are — You could start with external and internal stakeholder categories and put them into either of these buckets. The reason for doing is that it will then stop you tunnel visioning into those that directly use the product and think more broadly — such as supportability, saleability, implementation costs and so on.
If you have any material that I could read on different stakeholders in product development, then send it my way to my email fishoutthebox@gmail.com. Thank you!
