Evaluating the level of stakeholder involvement during the project planning processes of building projects

• Examining the level of involvement of four key stakeholder groups in different phases of project planning process.
• Project managers/owners have the highest and contractors have the lowest level of engagement in the planning process.
• The need to improve the effectiveness of key stakeholder’s involvement during the initial and planning phases.

The purpose of this study is to examine the current level of stakeholder involvement during the project's planning process. Stakeholders often provide the needed resources and have the ability to control the interaction and resource flows in the network. They also ultimately have strong impact on an organisation's survival, and therefore appropriate management and involvement of key stakeholders should be an important part of any project management plan.A series of literature reviews was conducted to identify and categorise significant phases involved in the planning. For data collection, a questionnaire survey was designed and distributed amongst nearly 200 companies who were involved in the residential building sector in Australia. Results of the analysis demonstrate the engagement levels of the four stakeholder groups involved in the planning process and establish a basis for further stakeholder involvement improvement.