A stakeholder map offers a simple visual snapshot of who matters, what they care about, and how much influence they have. A stakeholder register goes further: it is a living structured table that typically captures the name, role, organization, influence, interest, attitude, preferred channel, cadence, last contact, next action, and relationship owner for each person. The two artifacts complement each other — the map shows the shape of the landscape at a glance, while the register tracks the operational relationship. The most common reason mapping fails is that it is done once and then ignored, so the picture drifts away from reality as the project evolves. The fix is to refresh the analysis at major phase gates, when scope changes, or when a new sponsor, regulator, or partner joins the work.
Power and interest are the two axes most often used to prioritize. Power is the ability to shape outcomes, while interest is how much the outcome matters to the stakeholder; the two are not the same and need to be scored separately. The Mendelow matrix places these axes into four quadrants: "key players" (high power, high interest) require close engagement; "keep satisfied" (high power, low interest) need enough information to prevent surprise without daily detail; "keep informed" (high interest, low power) care enough to spread opinion but cannot decide outcomes; and "monitor" (low power, low interest) need only light touches. Engagement should differ sharply by quadrant — co-creating plans and giving real visibility to key players, while reserving short monthly briefings for the keep-satisfied group. A limitation of the simple grid is that it ignores legitimacy, urgency, attitude, and relationships, which often change how a stakeholder should actually be managed.
Two richer models fill that gap. The power-interest-legitimacy extension of Mendelow adds legitimacy — whether the stakeholder's claim on the organization is valid. The Mitchell, Agle, and Wood salience model classifies stakeholders by power, legitimacy, and urgency, producing seven types: dormant, discretionary, demanding, dominant, dangerous, dependent, and definitive. The "definitive" stakeholder holds all three attributes and therefore deserves the highest priority; a "dependent" stakeholder has legitimacy and urgency but little power and must rely on others to act on their behalf. Beyond these models, broader engagement assessment plans track the "current vs. desired state" gap — the difference between the engagement level a stakeholder has today and the level the work actually needs — using typical levels such as unaware, resistant, neutral, supportive, and leading. A facilitated stakeholder analysis workshop is the usual way to build these views: the team maps all known stakeholders, scores them, and agrees engagement tactics for each.