I think stakeholders can have a significant amount of power when it comes to the success of a project. They can influence the project's goals, scope, budget, and timeline, as well as provide critical feedback and guidance throughout the project lifecycle. Stakeholders are those who have a vested interest in the project's outcome, such as customers, investors, sponsors, and other relevant parties. Their involvement and support can help ensure that the project meets its objectives and delivers value to its intended beneficiaries. However, stakeholders can also create obstacles and challenges for the project team if they have conflicting interests or expectations. In some cases, they may push for changes or modifications to the project that can disrupt the team's plans and create delays or additional costs.

As the previous response stated, stakeholders have a significant amount of power when it comes to a project. This is because they are the ones funding the project and providing all the resources needed. And in some cases, they are also the ones that need the project to be completed. No project can succeed or be completed without the stakeholders involvement and input. It’s also important to note that there are a lot of different types of stakeholders — not just ones investing money into the project. There are internal and external stakeholders. Internal stakeholders include employees, managers, shareholders, etc. External stakeholders include investors, customers, suppliers, and even the government. So, when it is said that stakeholders hold a significant amount of power over a project, it should be kept in mind that stakeholders are literally everyone involved in the project. Therefore, it makes sense that they are extremely important and a project cannot be completed without them. It is also important to recognize that some stakeholders hold more power than others. Investors and the government, for example, end up being more important than employees working on the project. This is because the investors giving money for the project, and the government, who eventually decides if your product is going to be in the market or not, end up deciding if the product the employees are building is going to be introduced into the market at all. And this decides whether the company makes profit on the product or suffers losses. For that reason, it's imperative that the project manager and team upkeep good communication with such stakeholders and work in their favor to ensure success of a project. 

For a successful project, I think stakeholders play a very significant role. Not only do they fund the project, but they also play a big role in motivating project team members. Overall, while they primarily impact the project positively, there are cases that a stakeholder can negatively impact the project. For example, an overzealous stakeholder that is also stubborn could potentially derail all plans. A project could be on the path to completion and not be "fast enough" for them. They could disregard subject matter expert opinions and pressure changes to be completed the way that they want to. This could result in a product that was haphazardly created or a project that due to cut corners, does not function as intended. Overall, I think that stakeholders can sway the project in either direction and hold a significant amount of power.

@sm2744 

While stakeholders do hold significant amount of power, it's ultimately the project team's responsibility to manage stakeholder expectations and maintain control over the project's direction and outcomes. The project manager is most critical in juggling these variables. The stakeholders may fund the project and play a role in motivating team members but the project team is responsible for planning, executing, and delivering the project.

A scenario of a stakeholder having negative effect on a successful project is a narrow minded focus on the team to speed up the development progress. This may lead to a subpar product. More than often, a faster development cycle will lead to worse outcomes and quality. However, these issues often result from both parties. Perhaps the project team didn't take steps to manage the stakeholder's expectations and mitigate the risks associated with their demands. A lack of frequent updates and overtly optimistic milestones could have incentivize the stakeholder to push the project team excessively hard.

While stakeholders can have a significant impact on a project's success, the project manager should realize it's ultimately the project team's responsibility to manage stakeholder expectations and maintain control over the project's direction and outcomes.

Stakeholders have significantly big impacts in the opening and closing phases of the project. They set the product goals, definitions, and product inputs. During the closing phase of the project, they ensure that project deliverables are met. During the project itself, they are sources of answers for PMs looking for questions that come up along the way. They are also responsible for maintaining the project on the company's roster.

When it comes to having a successful project, I believe the stakeholders play a fairly large role. Stakeholders obviously have a vested interest in making sure the project is successful, either because they will be directly affected by it or because they have a financial or strategic interest in its outcome. For example, in a software development project, stakeholders such as end-users, investors, and executives have the power to influence decisions such as the features to be included, the budget allocation, and the timeline. Their feedback and support can ultimately determine the success of the project.

The involvement and support of stakeholders can be critical to the success of a project. Stakeholders can provide resources, feedback, and guidance throughout the project lifecycle, and their involvement can help ensure that the project meets its goals and objectives. On the other hand, if stakeholders are not engaged or are resistant to the project, it can create significant roadblocks and jeopardize its success.

Stakeholders have a significant impact on how well a project goes because they can influence important decisions, risk management, resource allocation, and change implementation. Since they set success criteria, supervise, and keep project teams responsible, their support and involvement are essential to the project lifecycle. Additionally, the involvement and buy-in of stakeholders inspire team members of the project and obtain resources that are required. Stakeholders have a say in the priorities, scope, and outcomes of projects, thus managing them effectively is crucial to their success. In the end, a project's capacity to provide outcomes that satisfy organizational requirements and expectations is greatly impacted by stakeholders' alignment with the project's aims and objectives.

Overall, stakeholders are integral to the success of a project because they influence its direction, outcomes, and sustainability. While the main role of project stakeholders are to provide appropriate resources to the project team, they also play crucial roles in clarifying the project objectives, providing feedback and validation, managing risk, and allocating resources. To begin, stakeholders provide valuable insight on defining the project objectives and scope. It is the stakeholders job to provide concise and specific requirements so that the project aligns with the organizational goals and meets the needs of all involved parties. Along with clarifying the project objectives, stakeholders are often in control of the project's resources including funding, manpower and equipment. This makes understanding their priorities and requirements even more essential as a project manager. Another aspect in which stakeholders influence the success of a project is in risk management. As result of their knowledge and resources, stakeholders bring in wide perspectives on risk identification and mitigation efforts. By involving them in risk management activities, project teams can anticipate potential challenges more effectively and develop strategies to address them proactively. Ultimately, while engaging stakeholders will ensure success to the project, it all comes down to proactive communication and collaboration from the team to achieve the success.

For projects to be successful, I think that stakeholders need to possess a lot of power in the project teams. As dmf2 stated above, stakeholders have very crucial responsibilities in funding, clarifying objectives, giving feedback, and monitoring risk. Without full investment from the stakeholders, the project team would not be able to successfully complete their tasks. Stakeholders are the heart of most projects with the first aspect being in funding. Every project has a budget that they can work with and depending on how invested the stakeholder is will determine their budget for the team. Giving the stakeholder more power they can use their money for more equipment and workers so the job gets done faster and more efficiently. Stakeholders could have a lot of responsibilities, but this is definitely the most important and why they have so much power. 

Although it is important for a project manager to strategically manage the expectations of stakeholders into achievable goals for their project teams, the stakeholders are really the primary foundation of the project (i.e., monetary foundation) and their absence/withdrawal would probably inhibit the entire project. Sadly, no matter how good an idea is, if you don't have the money to manifest that idea into an actual product, it's effectively just a transient thought with no outcome. So, when this is translated to the roles and responsibilities of project managers, it becomes clear that they are really there to satisfy/fulfill the goals/mission of the stakeholders. 

I think it's also important to consider the motive of a stakeholder when considering whether to include them in the project. For example, there are some prospective stakeholders who genuinely have an interest in the proposed device/technology and they want a successful device because it will ultimately help people. Yes, they will benefit financially from its success, but they are more interested in improving a societal issue. I feel these types of stakeholders would be easier to work with as they might be more flexible regarding timelines, cost of a project, etc. In contrast, some stakeholders may be completely monetarily driven in their investment and they just want to see zeros at the end of a check. Of course, this is a generalization, but these stakeholders may be less amenable or flexible to changes in a project because their goal is not to rectify a societal problem, it is simply to increase return. These dynamics are also important for a project managers and the overall company to consider before partnering with prospective investors.  

In this subject, success in any project results from a collaborative effort between the team members and stakeholders. Stakeholders who possess significant influence and resources can play a crucial role in contributing to the project's overall success. Establishing solid relationships with stakeholders and maintaining open communication is vital to ensure their requirements are met, and the project is aligned with broader organizational goals. By building a strong rapport with stakeholders, the project team can leverage their expertise and contribution towards achieving the project's objectives. Also, they can expand their team and connect with related companies.

Stakeholders are those who fund a project and in many cases are often the contractors or the people who need a certain task to be done. They hold a large portion of the power since they are the ones who provide the tools and money for the project to be done. The team is needed due to their expertise in the given field. In most cases, it is in the stakeholder's best interest to maintain a good relationship with the team because they need the project to be completed for either their company or contractors who need something done. There are times where this relationship can become toxic in the sense that the stakeholders are very strict on deadlines or are not understanding of delays within the project. In some cases the stakeholder might not have the same pressures and they are just someone with the financial means to see a project they have interest in come to life. Regardless, the stakeholder does have a big say in the project and I feel as if they are right to do so. Without their investment into the project, it is most likely that this project would not be started.

In my opinion, stakeholders have tremendous power in directing the course of a project, since it is their money/investment that is used to fund the company's ambitions and projects. If a majority of stakeholders are looking to throw a project on the backburner or focus on something, that would result in the minimized or complete stoppage of a project to shift the resources and attention to. That is why, where there is a priority or objective to be done, all aspects of the company might be aligned in order to achieve the result in an effective timely manner. From the highest level of the CEO to pitch the objective and convince the stakeholders that this project is an appropriate usage of the funds, to the R&D department and others focusing on prioritizing this assignment beyond all else.

Sponsors and/or stakeholders generally have a high amount of power and impact towards a successful project. They of course can influence a project at the highest level, to the point where the project would need to shift all directions in completely inpromptu fashion. Unfortunately, I was a part of project that was affected by sponsors decisions of taking the route to save as much as time as possible, rather than continuing the project to complete it fully without any shortcuts. This ended up proving to be costly because time was saved in the short run, but many members on the team agreed that this would end up being far more costly in the long term because the proper precautions and steps during the project weren't taken. Thus, although many said taking the fastest route wasn't beneficial for the project, the sponsors say was what had the strongest impact on the decision. This is why I believe that whether the impact on a project being successful or even failing, the sponsors have a large say in the outcome and what decisions are made to the scope, timeline, and even the team of a project.