Think about your project as a Shakespearean tragedy. See it as a play with all your stakeholders on a stage, wearing tights, big floppy hats and all talking in this weird language, "Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day." It helps you to put things into perspective, and it will not be far from reality.

During the project intake the software project manager should create a picture of who the stakeholders are. Before the play can start, you should at least know your cast. D'Herbemont and César call it "the field of play":

In theory, nothing is simpler than to draw up the field of play for a project. It defines itself. (…) A new information system is to be introduced? The players are the computer suppliers and the users. (…) However, defining the field of play always throws up surprises. One starts by working very calmly on a clean sheet of paper on a flip-chart. Soon there are ten sheets stuck to the wall on the meeting room, each filled with arrows, crosses and question marks. At the end of the day, there are still unanswered questions. (Managing Sensitive Projects)

So, basically what you do, is stand in front of a white board and start drawing relations between parties and people, indicating why they are a stakeholder in the project.

The field of play consists of groups and individuals. However, when we talk about demands, only individuals should be considered. When it seems a group makes any demands, or indicates other kind of properties normally associated with individuals, one has to look for a leader of the group, a representative, and substitute this person for "the group". It is not a group that has dreams or wishes, it is a person.

In this way you also avoid assigning stakes to people based upon an assumption related to the group. This kind of "stereotyping" can cause bad decisions of the project management; what is seen as a win-win situation, may be regarded by the individual as a complete disaster.