What is a Stakeholder Engagement Plan?
The stakeholder engagement plan turns analysis into strategy: for each key stakeholder or group, the desired engagement level, the approach to get there, who owns the relationship, and how success will be sensed. It's the action layer above the register (who they are) and the assessment matrix (where they stand versus where you need them).
Its sensitive nature is real — "strategy for moving the CFO from resistant to neutral" is not a document you print for the CFO — so mature PMs write it honestly and circulate it carefully.
Worked example
For a plant-consolidation project: the works council (currently resistant, needed at neutral) gets monthly previews before any all-hands announcement, owned by the HR director; the anchor customer (supportive, needed at leading) gets invited into UAT and a reference-visit program, owned by the account VP. Each line has an owner and a next action — which is what separates an engagement plan from a seating chart with opinions.