Cybersecurity Strategy Management Framework
This article is part of the Cybersecurity Strategy Management Framework. The work on it is currently in progress. You can read more about the framework in this article.
Purpose
The purpose of developing a stakeholder collaboration plan is to align your cyber strategy with the organizational objectives and ensure strategy buy-in and efficient development of key deliverables.
Objectives
Inputs
Activities
Review stakeholder tiers
Successful implementation of your cybersecurity strategy requires collaboration among your stakeholders. Engaging them in the strategy development process can help you to achieve the following:
Increased sense of ownership. Involving stakeholders in the process gives them a sense of ownership over the deliverables they produce together. Their emotional investment usually leads to increased engagement during strategy implementation and maintenance.
Diverse perspectives and expertise. Your stakeholders can bring varied perspectives and expertise. When considering different viewpoints while designing your strategy, you ensure it is sufficiently robust and comprehensive.
Better alignment with organizational goals. Engaging your stakeholders from the start helps ensure that your strategy aligns with your company’s broader goals and objectives. As a result, it demonstrates to your management that cybersecurity supports achieving strategic objectives while keeping the risks under control.
Feedback loop for continuous improvements. Stakeholder engagement creates a feedback loop that can continuously improve the strategy and keep it adequate and relevant.
Considering these benefits, it is crucial to understand and analyze your stakeholders effectively. We described this process in detail as part of the “1A. Analyze cybersecurity stakeholders” activity.
During that activity, you identified your stakeholders relevant to the cyber strategy design and classified them into the following tiers:
Players. These are key decision-makers with high power and interest, such as senior management and IT leaders. They are crucial in shaping your strategy, promoting it, and providing the necessary resources.
Context Setters. These stakeholders have power but lack interest. They may include industry groups or regulatory bodies that define regulations or market standards for cybersecurity in your industry. As a result, they can heavily impact your strategic direction.
Subjects. This tier usually includes employees, customers, and vendors. These stakeholders have legitimate concerns about cybersecurity but lack decision-making power. However, you must consider their input to understand business challenges and promote a user-centric approach.
Crowd. This tier comprises stakeholders without direct power and low interest in your strategy. It may include wider public or peripheral suppliers. They are not your primary focus, but keeping them informed about your cybersecurity posture is important from the public relations and reputational perspectives.
The tiers assigned to your inventory stakeholders are critical for defining a stakeholder collaboration plan. They help to identify the most suitable collaboration strategies based on your stakeholders’ interests and power.
Select collaboration strategies
Building on the stakeholder analysis you have conducted earlier, you can select the right collaboration strategies. We can divide these strategies broadly into several groups, each tailored to different needs and interactions:
Partnership. This strategy involves collaborating with key stakeholders to achieve common objectives. It is characterized by shared accountability and responsibility, where you and your stakeholders contribute resources and share risks. Such partnerships are crucial for continuous cybersecurity improvement.
Participation. In this strategy, you involve your stakeholders in completing specific tasks or producing deliverables. You can engage them in the target state design workshops, defining security policies and standards or developing cyber security processes. By doing this, your stakeholders are given a say in decision-making processes. It is particularly important when specific decisions directly impact their work.
Consultation. This approach entails seeking inputs from stakeholders like cybersecurity experts, legal advisors, or regulatory bodies when working on your deliverables. It recognizes the value of their insights in shaping effective cybersecurity capabilities and can range from informal discussions to formal feedback mechanisms.
Push Communication. It is a strategy where you disseminate important cybersecurity information, such as policy updates or changes to security processes, to stakeholders like employees and customers without expecting immediate feedback. It keeps them informed and prepared but does not necessarily engage them in a dialogue.
Pull Communication. In contrast to push communication, this strategy allows stakeholders to access cybersecurity information conveniently when needed. It involves making resources like cyber strategy, supporting roadmap, process descriptions, guidelines or progress updates available on platforms that stakeholders can visit to obtain required information.
These are the most common strategies used in stakeholder management. However, if you are interested in other approaches, please refer to “AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard (SES) 2015,” published by AccountAbility. It aims to establish best practices in stakeholder engagement.
Once you understand these strategies well, you can select the most appropriate ones based on your stakeholder tiering. The following table presents rough guidelines you can use to map collaboration approaches:
Stakeholder Tier | Collaboration Strategy | Description |
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Players | Partnership | Forming strong partnerships with Players is crucial due to their significant influence and ability to drive cybersecurity initiatives. |
Players | Participation | Engaging players in decision-making processes is essential, as their insights and authority are vital for the success of a cyber strategy. |
Context Setters | Consultation | Consulting with Context Setters ensures the cyber strategy aligns with regulatory standards and compliance requirements and incorporates strategic insights. |
Context Setters | Pull Communication | Allows Context Setters to stay informed about cybersecurity developments without needing continuous updates. |
Subjects | Participation | Involving Subjects in decision-making addresses their immediate cybersecurity concerns and leverages their on-the-ground insights. |
Subjects | Push Communication | Keeps Subjects informed about cybersecurity issues that affect them, maintaining awareness and preparedness. |
Crowd | Push Communication | Providing general information about cybersecurity initiatives helps keep the Crowd informed. |
Crowd | Pull Communication | Allows those in the Crowd who are interested to seek out more detailed cybersecurity information. |
These strategies, tailored to each stakeholder tier, show the importance of a balanced approach to stakeholder collaboration in cybersecurity. They not only assure effective engagement but also link back to the benefits of diverse perspectives, improved communication, and alignment with organizational goals presented in the first section of this article.
After selecting collaboration strategies, your stakeholder inventory should include the proposed collaboration approach for each stakeholder, as shown in the example below:
Stakeholder | Stakeholder Tier | Collaboration Strategy |
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CEO | Players | Partnership |
CFO | Context Setters | Consultation |
CTO | Players | Participation |
Data Protection Agency | Context Setters | Pull Communication |
Employees | Crowd | Push Communication |
Information Owners | Subjects | Participation |
Prepare plan template
Having selected your collaboration strategies and aligned them with different stakeholder tiers, the next step is to put these strategies into action. Create a stakeholder collaboration plan template to help you systematically organize and implement your strategies, ensuring effective stakeholder engagement throughout each strategy development phase.
You can structure your stakeholder collaboration plan template as follows:
By preparing this stakeholder collaboration plan template, you create a framework to guide stakeholder engagement throughout the cyber strategy development process. This structured approach ensures that every stakeholder interaction is purposeful, aligned with your objectives, and leverages the insights from your stakeholder analysis.
Review activities, objectives and deliverables
With your stakeholder collaboration plan template in place, dive into a detailed review of your cyber strategy project’s activities, objectives, and deliverables. This step ensures that your collaboration strategies are finely tuned to each aspect of your project, enhancing their effectiveness and efficiency.
Review project activities. Begin by examining each phase of your cyber strategy project. Identify the critical activities that require collaboration with your stakeholders. Refer to our Cyber Strategy Management Framework for a comprehensive list of activities within a cyber strategy development project. Understanding the requirements of each activity will guide you in determining the most appropriate collaboration approach. Select the first activity for which you need to define associated collaboration activities.
Review objectives. Next, focus on the objectives associated with the activity. They define what you aim to achieve. By reviewing these objectives, you gain clarity on what type of collaboration activity will best support their achievement. This step ensures that your collaboration is purpose-driven.
Review deliverables: Lastly, closely examine the deliverables of the activity. Understanding the nature of these deliverables is crucial for deciding how best to produce them. This examination will also help you choose the most appropriate collaboration activity for effectively producing these deliverables.
By actively reviewing your cyber strategy development project’s activities, objectives, and deliverables, you create a solid groundwork for a collaboration plan that aligns perfectly with your project goals.
Define collaboration activities
Following your review of the project’s activities, objectives, and deliverables, you can define specific collaboration activities. This step involves turning your overarching collaboration strategies into concrete, actionable steps. As you do this, consider several critical factors to select the most suitable activities for effective engagement:
Organizational culture. Consider the prevailing attitudes, values, and practices within your organization. Activities should align with these cultural aspects to ensure smooth adoption and participation.
Stakeholder context. Consider the specific needs, interests, and characteristics of your stakeholders, which you assessed as part of your “1A. Identify stakeholders“, “1E. Interview key stakeholders,” and “1F. Finalize context review” activities. Choose activities that align with these particulars for relevance and effectiveness.
Project timeline. Evaluate the timeline of your cyber strategy project. Activities should fit within the overall schedule, with consideration for necessary preparation and follow-up time.
Resource availability. Ensure the chosen activities are feasible within your resource constraints, considering personnel, budget, and technology.
Communication preferences. Match your activities with your stakeholders’ preferred communication channels and styles to increase their engagement. For stakeholders classified as Players, you asked about their preferences during the “1E. Interview key stakeholders” activity.
Sensitivity of information. Tailor the collaboration activities based on the sensitivity of the shared information and the associated risks.
We present the following curated list of collaboration activities to suit different stakeholder engagement strategies, particularly during cyber strategy development projects. These activities will maximize the effectiveness of your stakeholder interactions, addressing the unique needs and dynamics of each stakeholder group while considering the factors mentioned above.
Partnership
Participation
Consultation
Push Communication
Pull Communication
As you select specific collaboration activities, transform your overarching strategies into concrete, actionable steps. Ensure that the description of each activity includes a clear definition of what will happen, when it will happen, and the overall approach.
As a result of this careful selection process, you should now have the most appropriate collaboration activity or set of activities assigned to a specific project activity, as in the example below.
Project Phase | Project Activity | Objectives | Deliverables | Collaboration Strategy | Collaboration Activity | Collaboration Activity Description |
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1 - Horizon |
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| Horizon interviews | Conduct 30-minute one-on-one interviews with key stakeholders to understand their motivations, identify common interests, and gather initial requirements. |
2 - Target |
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| Target state design workshop 1 | Conduct a half-day workshop to prioritize cyber security areas and define high-level objectives for cyber strategy. |
Identify required stakeholders
After selecting a specific collaboration activity or set of activities, you can identify the required stakeholders. This decision is vital to ensure that your deliverables are comprehensive, include various points of view and have a buy-in of relevant stakeholders.
To accurately identify the right stakeholders, consider these critical criteria:
Nature of project activity. Evaluate the project activity in your cyber strategy project associated with the proposed collaboration activity. Identify stakeholders with the expertise or influence needed to complete the project task, such as IT specialists for defining technical standards and legal advisors for policy development.
Objectives associated with the project activity. Determine stakeholders who can help achieve the objectives of each activity. Look for individuals with the relevant knowledge, skills, or authority. For instance, include data security professionals when designing a model for your data leakage prevention capability.
Deliverables. Choose stakeholders who can ensure each deliverable is comprehensive and meets the needs of its users, including direct users, those impacted by the deliverable, and those who can offer essential insights or validation.
Nature of collaboration activity. Match the type of collaboration activity with appropriate stakeholders. Some activities may require smaller, more focused groups, while others benefit from broader participation.
Collaboration strategies defined earlier. Align stakeholder selection with the collaboration strategies you have already chosen. This alignment ensures stakeholders are well-suited to the planned collaboration, partnership, participation, or consultation. For example, involve key decision-makers in partnership activities where you need to make significant strategic decisions.
By actively identifying the right stakeholders for each collaboration activity, you create a foundation for a cyber strategy that is technically robust and enjoys broad support and inclusivity within your organization.
You should repeat the process steps outlined in parts 5 and 6 of this article for each project activity where collaboration with stakeholders adds value.
Summarize collaboration plan
Following the detailed steps of defining collaboration activities outlined in the previous sections, you can now turn your attention to summarizing your stakeholder collaboration plan using the template provided earlier. This summary links together the strategy development phase, project activity, objectives, deliverables, collaboration activity, and required stakeholders — all elements you defined earlier.
As you prepare this summary, consider the following:
Adopt an agile approach. Ensure your plan remains adaptable to changes in stakeholder dynamics and organizational priorities.
Update continuously. Regularly revise your plan to incorporate new insights, feedback, or changes in your project scope.
Integrate a feedback mechanism. As suggested in the stakeholder engagement process, include a tool for stakeholders to provide feedback on the collaboration, facilitating continuous improvement.
Allocate resources efficiently. Pay careful attention to allocating time, budget, and personnel for each collaboration activity to guarantee practical implementation.
Integrating these considerations into your collaboration plan summary creates a comprehensive approach to engage your stakeholders during cyber strategy definition, implementation, and maintenance.
For a practical understanding of how different elements come together in a real-world scenario, please refer to the example of the collaboration plan provided below. This example will give you a clearer picture of how to apply the principles and strategies discussed throughout this article to create an effective collaboration plan for your cyber strategy projects.
Project Phase | Project Activity | Objectives | Deliverables | Collaboration Strategy | Collaboration Activity | Collaboration Activity Description | Required Stakeholders |
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All |
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| Advisory board | The advisory board will meet regularly to discuss strategic direction, review project progress, and provide expert insights. |
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All |
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| Strategy meetings | Establish strategy meetings to review progress updates, resolve issues, approve changes, analyze performance, conduct future planning, review resources, collect feedback and generate ideas. |
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All |
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| SharePoint site | Establish and maintain a SharePoint site for storing and sharing project documents and collaborative work. |
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1 - Horizon |
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| Horizon interviews | Conduct 30-minute one-on-one interviews with key stakeholders to understand their motivations, identify common interests, and gather initial requirements. |
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2 - Target |
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| Target state design workshop 1 | Conduct a half-day workshop to prioritize cyber security areas and define high-level objectives for cyber strategy. |
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2 - Target |
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| Target state design workshop 2 | Conduct workshops with subject matter experts and domain owners to define cyber capability models. |
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3 - Orientation |
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| Current state assessment interviews | Conduct a series of interviews to assess the maturity of cyber capabilities and identify issues and cost-saving opportunities. |
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3 - Orientation |
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| Discussions on recommendations | Conduct a series of roundtable discussions to discuss the assessed maturity of cyber capabilities and the identified issues and review and collect feedback on proposed initial recommendations. |
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4 - Planning |
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| Project identification and charters | Collaborate with selected stakeholders using online tools to identify existing and new projects required to achieve strategic cyber objectives and define proposed project charters, including their purpose, objectives, key deliverables and high-level resource assumptions. |
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4 - Planning |
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| Roadmap development workshop | Conduct a workshop with selected stakeholders to review the summary of the target state and required projects, prioritize these projects and develop a high-level roadmap. |
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4 - Planning |
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| Strategy approval briefings | Conduct a series of informal briefings with key stakeholders on the proposed strategy and roadmap to obtain initial feedback and their support. |
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4 - Planning |
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| Strategy approval presentation | Present a final version of your strategy to your key stakeholders to obtain formal approval. |
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4 - Planning |
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| Strategy presentation | Conduct a series of webinars to present the strategy across the entire organization. |
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4 - Planning |
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| Strategy site | Publish the strategy and supporting materials on the communication SharePoint site. |
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5 - Action |
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| Policy collaboration | Collaborate with selected stakeholders using online tools to define, review and approve required policies and standards. |
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5 - Action |
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| Process design workshops | Conduct workshops with security professionals and process stakeholders to define required cybersecurity processes, including their purpose, objectives, stakeholders, inputs, process flows, and outputs. |
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5 - Action |
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| Cyber awareness | Establish an e-learning platform with the cyber program to increase awareness levels. |
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5 - Action |
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| SharePoint Site - reporting section | Create a dashboard with metrics covering critical controls |
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6 - Tracking |
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| SharePoint Site - feedback section | Establish a feedback section on SharePoint for ongoing stakeholder input and regularly review this feedback for strategy improvements. |
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Outputs
References
Use the following links to deepen your knowledge about this topic.
- Capozzoli V. (2015). Stakeholder management – a short introduction
- Morphy, T. (n.d.). Stakeholder Engagement – Definition and Overview
- Smith, L. W. (2000). Stakeholder Analysis: a Pivotal Practice of Successful Projects. Paper presented at Project Management Institute Annual Seminars & Symposium, Houston, TX. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute
- Tractivity (n.d.). Stakeholder Communication Channels in the Engagement Pyramid
- Barrow, Bryan. (2017). Stakeholder Management: 50 Quick and Easy Ways to Become Brilliant at Project Stakeholder Management. [Thembi Publishing]
- Giangregorio, Emanuela. (2020). Practical Project Stakeholder Management: Methods, Tools and Templates for Comprehensive Stakeholder Management. [Emanuela Giangregorio]
- Jucan, George. A Pocket Guide to Stakeholders’ Engagement (p. 36). Organizational Performance Enablers Network. Kindle Edition.
- AccountAbility (2015). AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard
- International Institute of Business Analysis (2015). BABOK 3: A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge
- ISACA (2012). COBIT 5 Implementation
- ISO (2017). ISO/IEC 27003: Information Technology – Security Techniques – Information Security Management Systems
- Jeffery Neil (2009). Stakeholder Engagement: A Road Map to Meaningful Engagement. [Doughty Centre, Cranfield School of Management]
- Project Management Institute (2021). The Standard for Project Management and a Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Seventh Edition
Cybersecurity Strategy Management Framework
This article is part of the Cybersecurity Strategy Management Framework. The work on it is currently in progress. You can read more about the framework in this article.