It’s fun to draft up the, R.A.C.I.
It’s hard to draft up the, R.A.C.I.
Its neither really, but a simple RACI can be a project manager’s best friend.
It is a task though that I see new project managers (and sometimes even seasoned ones) struggle with – to the point where they will avoid creating one at all.
I wont go into what a RACI is here. There are thousands of pages returned if you google how to create one and what it should look like. I may come back to the topic in a future post though.
To RACI or Not To RACI?
While some people will swear by them, and tell you that you should never start a project without one – others will tell you that they are pointless and not needed at all. Most times the potential upside of having one outweighs the downside of not.
Here are a few benefits that you might get by spending a few minutes to create one, even a rough one.
- Early identification of ambiguity or gaps in key roles that will impact your ability to deliver the project successfully.
- Early identification of misalignment between you and senior stakeholders on the project. This can be particularly useful if it flags activities which the project sponsor considers you accountable/responsible for. Ones you don’t.
- It can be leveraged to drive decision making later in the project by providing a distinction between those who can have a view on a topic and those who are the actual decision makers.
- If things go very bad on a project and blame starts to be thrown in your direction, it provides an agreed point of reference to challenge blame directed at you inappropriately. It might be the difference between a shot that wounds vs a shot that kills.
Writer’s block
Most of the times I’ve seen people struggle to create the RACI will come down to two areas.
The first is when you try to be too perfect with the list of key activities for the project. When you second guess yourself on the level of detail to include, and worry about missing something. Don’t.
As a guide, aim for a list of between 5 and 8 items initially. Too few and it wont drive alignment at a level you can leverage when running the project. Too many and people wont read it.
The second can be when trying to decide is someone is Accountable and/or Responsible.
Make the Accountable person the one whose head is on the chopping block. It is the person that you, or the Responsible person, can go to if there are issues getting the activity done. This person should have power to resolve those issues.
The Responsible person is the one who needs to deliver the activity – whether they do it themselves or they drive action in others to see it done. They are the “day to day” owner of the activity. For efficiency, try and just have one Responsible person per activity.
Keep it simple
Just do it. Dont worry about getting it perfect, first time. Think of it as something to trigger a discussion, rather than something that you will have to present fully complete.
Give the key people on the project a chance to challenge it, change it, or accept it. Silence is acceptance.
Keep it accessible during the project. Reference it periodically. Use it yourself to check whether you are managing the different stakeholder groups correctly – and if they are all doing their part.