ABSTRACT
The simple definition of internal stakeholders adopted here is that they are those individuals within a project organisation who will initiate the project, sanction expenditure, agree the scope, participate in implementation and use the output. In a broader sense, stakeholders are those who will influence the project it or be affected by it. Who these stakeholders are will vary to some degree between projects in the public and private sectors and from industry to industry. The internal stakeholders of a project may include the project board, customer, end users, project manager, project team and in-house functions such as finance, legal, information technology, public relations and human resources. The customer and the end user may be from the same organisation or different organisations. When from the same organisation, they may be from different parts of the organisation, such as from within a subsidiary, division, group or department. The way in which the internal stakeholders work together will be the source of both project uncertainty and opportunity.
