TOPIC: Stakeholder

can a competitor be considered a stakeholder?

A very good question and I believe the answer is yes. What you do could affect how the competitor places itself in the market, which again could affect what projects you complete in the future.
For instance look at Apple and Microsoft with the tablets. Apple brought the tablet out and this completely changed the market and Microsoft had to jump on board to create their own tablet. But what would have happened if Microsoft had brought the tablet out first? If you know your competitor is developing a similar project to you then this could affect how fast or what type of project you compelte. You could even decide to cancel a project if you feel that the competitor could beat you to market with a better product. So an analysis of your competitors would be very useful when evaluating your project.

Hmm, that is indeed a very intriguing question. I agree with Sarah that the answer is yes; however, I think that it is more like "Yes, but..."

The PMBOK 5th Edition section 2.2 defines stakeholders as "an individual, group, or organization who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project." By that definition, your competitors certainly qualify as stakeholders!

However, I don't think that most of the typical stakeholder interactions apply. For example, typically stakeholders are involved in defining your project requirements, and you keep them informed of your project progress. If I were developing a product I certainly wouldn't want to either give my competitors a chance to directly shape the direction of the project, nor give them free competitive intelligence on what I was doing!

Thanks Steve and Sarah for your inputs. I personally think, based on your inputs the question has a 'yes' and 'no' aspect. I would also love to hear what Cornelius and his team has to say about this.

but Sarah, this is considered Market Demand Analysis, is to analyze your competitors products and their features, copyrights before deciding to initiate a project which has unique deliverable..

During my study materials, non said competitors are stakeholders that I need to identify and manage their engagement in the project. the word "Competitor" never mentioned in the PMBok.

Steve..
I would say I would only consider, the competitor, during Identify Risk if I would identify a possible breach of patent or copyright owned by the competitor, but why to add them to my project Stakeholder Register?
during bidding, competitors are beating to win the bid I posted. so how this would affect the progress of my project?

I think that I like your idea of accounting for them during Identify Risks -- that seems like a good approach. Adding them to my Stakeholder Register doesn't really make sense to me.

actually this type of questions will remain debatable as competitors was not discussed explicitly in the PMBok guide. so the topic will remain subjective.

what can be agreeable is, as project managers we have to study the market and the competition; be this in stakeholder management or risk analysis. the main objective is the project success, and to achieve this one must study competitors, the risks and opportunities that lie in this area.