Managing stakeholders is still a weak point in organisations, since every stakeholder expects that other party should take the responsibility/accountability. So, the focus becomes ultimately to managing expectations.

Grey areas:

1. Communication gap - If the relevant data is not captured for further analysis, it leads to ambiguity and hence ultimately to communication gap & conflict. Only data-driven approach provides clarity during cadences.

2. No value-driven approach - Due to ambiguity & communication gap, RCAs take longer time than expected. This increases the tenure of the Problem tickets making them long running ones without any workaround or permanent fix & putting the SLA at stake

3. Passing the ball game - If the relevant data is not available for analysis, it does not carry any value for the contributions brought during the cadences. Since the basis is missing, that makes the stakeholders to pass the ball game to another for performing tasks.

4. No involvement of external vendors for RCA - This lacks in providing the clarity to relevant external vendors in terms of triaging steps performed, support of external vendor needed in further analysis to achieve the desired outcomes.

Here is the Way out:

• Clear alignment on outcomes

• Weekly Problem reviews - meeting invites as a sprint along with MoMs as reference

• Data-driven conflict resolution

• Flawless collaboration involving all relevant stakeholders

• Following the RACI matrix for identifying RC, communication, & implementing fixes

• Fixes through Change process, whenever required

• Involving vendors, as & when required, plays crucial role for quicker analysis & also in achieving milestones like SLAs

In some cases, having only agenda won't suffice, rather shifting the mindset to managing the expectations along with priorities, & value-driven approach keeps everyone grounded while keeping an eye on Service Levels.

Stakeholder management in Problem Management is where most initiatives succeed or fail. The complexity isn’t the RCA—rather aligning multiple stakeholders is.