3.5. Align Stakeholder Expectations
💡 First Principle: Not all stakeholders expect the same things from the same project — this task tests whether you can categorize stakeholders and reconcile their differing expectations proactively, before divergence becomes conflict.
Enablers: categorize stakeholders, identify stakeholder expectations, facilitate discussions to align expectations, and organize/act on mentoring opportunities.
Categorization (e.g., by power/interest, or by internal/external, sponsor/end-user) isn't busywork — it determines how you approach each group's expectations. A high-power/high-interest sponsor expecting monthly ROI updates and a low-power/high-interest end-user expecting usability improvements require entirely different alignment conversations, run in parallel, not the same message sent to everyone.
⚠️ Exam Trap: Treating "align expectations" as a single all-hands communication event. PMI's tested behavior is proactive, targeted facilitation per stakeholder category — a one-size message to a diverse stakeholder group is the wrong answer on scenario questions.
