RACI: How to set yourself up for barbeque or project success
It’s summertime and the living is easy! Picture this: you’ve been invited to a BBQ, where everyone is instructed to bring a dish and something to drink. You arrive to a plethora of Taste the Difference sausages (‘fancy’ supermarket sausages), eight pots of hummus, own brand fizzy pop, as well as some beers and prosecco that you recognise from the discount aisle.
While this isn’t the worst of life’s problems, the spread could have been far more enticing and inclusive if the host had utilised the RACI model!
What does RACI stand for?
R: Who is responsible for bringing the hummus (and therefore who isn’t).
A: Who is accountable — The host who should have given more direction.
C: Who is consulted — You’d hope the host would check for allergies, dietary preferences etc. to ensure an inclusive and safe event.
I: Who is informed — The key information people need, such as timings and location.
I appreciate this is a light-hearted example, but getting a RACI in place and agreed to is critical to enable your project to be successful.
There are other essential tools, such as the RAID framework (risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies) and a robust project plan. This list grows, depending on your project risk and complexity, BUT if people aren’t clear on what they are responsible for OR think other people are handling certain things, then you could be on a path to disaster!
Let’s revisit the RACI model from a project perspective:
R (Responsible): This refers to the person or role that performs the task. They are the ones ‘doing the work’.
A (Accountable): This is the role that has ownership of quality and the end result. They are the ones who delegate work to those responsible and have the authority to make final decisions.
C (Consulted): These are the people whose input is sought for the task or decision. Their opinions are valued, and they contribute to the completion of the work, but they do not carry out the task.
I (Informed): These are the stakeholders who need to be kept in the loop about progress and decisions, but they do not have a direct role in the task or decision. They are essentially the recipients of updates and outcomes.
The benefits of using RACI in project management
A RACI should be established from the inception of the project, in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders and signed off by all impacted parties. A RACI developed secretly or without input is useless. It should also be revisited, regularly, often alongside a RAID, because there will be items in your RAID log which need to be added to you RACI.
If you find a project is stalling because decisions aren’t being made quickly enough, or it is evident you aren’t getting the engagement you need, then that is a warning sign that your RACI needs to be revalidated and recommunicated. In effect, it is a contract between the relevant parties to do what’s expected of them, ideally within the agreed timescales and to the required standard.
A RACI is also helpful if BAU staff are being utilised during a project, as it allows you to work out how much time is required by that individual or group. This ultimately enables the Project Manager to validate that those employees can commit to the timeframe, and it should also allow Line Managers to spread out the work within their team or department so that BAU work isn’t impacted and the project goes according to plan.
Depending on the timescales involved, you may want to appoint primary and secondary roles so that if one person is out of office for whatever reason, the project has an alternative decision maker.
So, next time you start planning a barbeque or initiating a project, think of RACI. Why? Because without the who, what and when you’ll be set up to fizzle, not sizzle!
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