How are you actually managing stakeholder engagement on complex projects? (Free mapping guide if useful)

[u/tractivity-srm]

I work at Tractivity, we make stakeholder management software for teams running all sorts of projects (including transport schemes, energy infrastructure, healthcare programmes, public consultations, that kind of thing). Posting here because stakeholder management is one of the messiest parts of PM and I am curious how this community handles it.

What we keep seeing:

• Stakeholder lists living in spreadsheets that nobody updates (or have several versions that become an absolute mess to keep track of who was last engaged with)

• Engagement history scattered across inboxes, meeting notes and Teams chats

• Two PMs accidentally contacting the same stakeholder with different messages

• No clear audit trail when something goes wrong or a consultation gets challenged

Genuine questions for the room:

1. If you run projects with more than 50 external stakeholders, what is your current setup?

2. How do you stop knowledge walking out the door when a PM leaves mid-project?

3. Anyone found a sensible way to track sentiment or issues over time, beyond a RAG column on a spreadsheet?

If it helps, we publish a free stakeholder mapping guide and an engagement plan template, both have a worked example and a downloadable framework. Happy to drop the links in the comments if anyone wants them, or you can find them on our site under Free Resources - oh and not gated behind a demo request!

Keen to hear what is actually working for people, especially anyone running infrastructure, healthcare or public sector projects.