by Ansumant
RACI Matrix refers to responsibility assignment matrix; this is also known as linear responsibility chart. It talks about the contribution to different roles in making the tasks complete or making a business process complete. This is basically useful in making the roles and responsibilities very clear in the departmental processes and projects.
RACI is an acronym that has resulted from the four main responsibilities those are used very commonly such as Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed.
Responsible: This is also known as the recommender. This is one of the important factors of the RACI Matrix. This speaks about the people who work in order to make a task complete. It includes minimum one role with a contribution sort of responsible, though others can be given a task to assist wherever there is a need. This will decide what responsibilities should be taken up by whom and how well they can handle the same.
Accountable: This is also known as an approver. This is the final approving authority. This is also one of the most important elements of the RACI Matrix. The one that is finally answerable for the right and complete finishing of the work or the task, the one who makes it sure the fundamentals of the task meet the requirements well. In some other language, an accountable is required to approve with that is given by the responsible. Also, there will be one accountable appointed for every task or the work.
Related: Data presentation and analysis
Consulted: Sometimes this is also called as a counselor or the consultant. This is also one of the most important factors of the RACI Matrix. This is about those whose points are hunted, commonly the matter experts and with who the interaction is from both the sides.
Informed: They also call this Informee. Those who are in line with the progress, generally on the finishing of the task or the work, and with whom there is communication in only one way. Generally, the role that is given for a task may be also answerable for getting it done. This is also marked on the matrix by the work or the task of having a responsibility for it. Outside this concession, it is generally said that each of the responsibility in the process or the project can get at least one of the sort of participation. Where above one participation sort is represented, this generally indicates that the participation has not just completely done and this can encumber the value of the mechanism in making the role very clear.
Role difference
There is a lot of difference between the role and separately identified people. A role is an interpreter of a linked set of work tasks that may be done by many people at a time. A single person can work on different roles at a time. Just to take an example, there may be a company with a good team of people and there are ten people who can perform the role of a senior project manager, though technically each and every project has only one manager at one time, and a person who is capable of performing the role well may also be capable to perform the role of tester.
The delegation of duties to people
This matrix is normally made up using a vertical axis that is on the left-hand side column of the given tasks. This is taken from a broken structure. There is also a horizontal axis of the roles that are taken from the organization task. This has to be checked carefully.
RACI chart is a definitive matrix of all the actions undertaken in a company against all the roles. At each of the activity intersection and the role, an assignment is possible. Work can be assigned to a dependable and experienced person. You may hear such types of expressions in a company
- My senior is against my decisions
- The approval process takes so much of time
- I am only held responsible for everything in the company.
- There is no good team spirit among the team members.
RACI Matrix- Uses
RACI matrix is a very useful and effective concept. This is very good for the workload check. An overload of the work can be easily tracked down. This is also very useful for the re-organization. This is helping to make sure about the main functions and the processes as well. This will also help to analyze the employee turnover. The new people can easily and fast know about their roles. This will also be helpful while assigning duties to the people in a group. The main use of the term is done in the Conflict Resolution. If there is any conflict in a company then this is a nice place to discuss and sort out issues. This platform will help to solve the issues with great ease.
You need to generate a matrix along with the roles. The roles have to be set at the top and the tasks will be there on the left side. When the analysis will be performed and the RACI matrix is done, any obscurities have to be solved. There will be a review of the matrix and there will be a few questions to answer. They will be based on data pattern. To do this you need to proceed by the way of vertical axes and then the horizontal ones.
Vertical Analysis: There are no empty spaces. Is there a need to involve in many actions? This will be checked in this type of analysis. There will be no use of R and A. the role of the functions should be removed. This will also check if there is a proper distribution of the duties or not. This will also tell you if other groups should be held responsible for a few of these activities in order to make sure the balances. This is the main point of this process. This will also check the level of the candidate and you will come to know of the person is as per the needs of that role or not.
Horizontal Analysis: There are no R’s in this type of analysis. This will decide who is doing what job. The roles will be approved well. This will also decide who will take up the maximum roles. There will be a person who will be answerable for the things those are taking place. There can also be confusion as every responsible person feels that he is eight and his decision should be taken into consideration. The process of this analysis can take a turn and be a little bit slow when the activity is taking place or the process may be out of the fashion.
This will also tell you which role needs a consultation and which does not. There may be some good benefits in making consultation of these roles. This will also check if this is just al about the including the bases. This will also check if all the roles have to be normally informed or only for the exceptions? If there are many in the line then the process will be slowed down. If there are too many people included then again the process will be slow.
Also Read: Root Cause Analysis as a problem solving technique