Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed I want to implement a project by clarifying the roles of stakeholders RACI Diagram Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed

What is it and why should I use it? Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed RACI diagrams are a simple matrix that enables you to identify WHO needs to be involved at different stages and HOW they are involved.

Discuss In your projects, how do you decide: Who do they need to consult? Who is going to do what task? Who will make sure the task has been done properly? Who needs to be informed when the task has been completed?

RACI Matrix Responsible Accountable Consulted Informed Task 1 Task 2 The person in charge of performing a task Accountable Person who must make sure the task is done completely (might be the same as responsible) Consulted 2-way communication with people who are expected to provide input and opinions Informed 1-way communication to people who should be notified and kept informed Task 1 Task 2 How do people know what they are supposed to be doing A tool that we have already mentioned, the RACI, can be especially helpful when identifying and monitoring the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders involved in project planning and implementation. By mapping out the role of key stakeholders in the project, the project team can communicate expectations and establish the scope of engagement of different groups. RACI is also very useful for monitoring the actual roles during implementation. Within the RACI matrix, each of the letters form an acronym that is interpreted as follows: Responsible [R] – This is the person responsible for performing a task. Bear in mind the adage that when nobody is responsible for getting something done, then nothing gets done. Also, a similar situation can occur when too many people are potentially responsible with little to no coordination and oversight to ensure that the task is completed. Another issue to consider is when a person has lots of “R’s”. Are they doing too much? Accountable [A] – This is the person who is held accountable for the task being complete. In general, one person should be accountable for a task being performed. In some projects, especially those with smaller and less complex tasks, the same person may serve in both the Accountable and Responsible roles. Consulted [C] – This is two-way communication -- people whose input is sought and factored as part of the action related to the activity. As the number of parties consulted increases, the speed with which action can be taken decreases. Conversely, too few and improper decisions may be made. One of the challenges of the project team is to ensure that only those who need to be consulted should be included in that column. While many stakeholders believe that they should be in the consulted column, in practice it is preferable to carefully manage those that must be in that column and place the others in the informed column when possible. Informed [I] – This is normally one-way communication -- parties who are notified. If the correct parties aren’t informed in some situations, then incidents can arise from groups wondering what changed. At the same time, if there are lots of people being informed, is it necessary? Task 3 Task 4 Task 5

Activity: Prepare a RACI matrix for one of your projects.