What is the RACI matrix, and what is its purpose?
The RACI matrix, its advantages and disadvantages, was described in detail earlier (here). RACI is a framework for proper management of projects and all relationships within them.
The purpose of the RACI model is to structure and specify the roles that stakeholders play in a project. Each person has an understanding of his/her area of responsibility, he/she knows what he/she does and what is not in his/her competence.
There are 4 roles in the RACI matrix: the Contractor, the Responsible Person, the Consultant and the Informed Party. By assigning responsibilities from the beginning, you can avoid making gross mistakes and wasting resources on fixing them. If you are reading about the RACI matrix for the first time, it is recommended to read the previous article (here), as in this one we will go further and take a closer look at all the stakeholders that should not be forgotten when drafting a RACI model.
Who are the stakeholders of the project?
These are the people who stand to gain or lose something depending on the outcome of your project.
Most often their interest is financial, but it can be of other kinds. A stakeholder can influence key decisions within the project and can be either an internal member of the project team or an external observer, such as an investor.
Internal stakeholders can include all those people who work in your organization. For example, they are the HR manager, project and management teams, etc.
As different teams are involved in each of the projects, this means that the internal stakeholders will change depending on the task.
External stakeholders are not part of your company - they are investors and contractors, government agencies, customers, etc. And they are also not constant, but change depending on the project.
What stakeholders exist and how to allocate their responsibilities in the RACI matrix?
Let's look at a few of the most important stakeholders for typical projects. We note at the outset that this list is not definitive and, of course, is subject to change.
1. The first stakeholder is the employees
These are the people who will be working on the company's tasks day in and day out. This includes members of the project team and employees of other departments of the company. The key to good employee management is effective communication between employees. If this is not in place, it will be difficult for the person in charge to find out if everything is going according to plan. However, by using Voiset, you can make this process easier and, most importantly, more efficient. The whole workflow will be clearly organised and tasks will be allocated according to the workload of all team members.
In rare cases, the RACI matrix created for a specific task may include only company employees.
Example: a simple task is "publish a post on a social network". Content manager Peter can be the Executor and Responsible Party, and Valerie from the marketing department can be the Consultant and Informed Party.
2. The second stakeholder is the investors
It is critical to keep people who have a financial stake in the project results informed about the implementation of most tasks. Therefore, investors should be at the top of the list of Informed Parties. Moreover, they are usually called "key stakeholders" because if they are not optimistic, the whole project can go down the drain.
Why, if a project has investors, should you include them in the list of Informed Parties in the RACI matrix? Because in most cases, if you don't, you can cause some kind of fear on their part, and that's not a good thing.
Can the expectations of Informed Parties be managed?
Yes, you can. To do this, it is important to create checkpoints of project progress. If you have them, you can measure progress. You will be able to set them in Voiset and, when achieved, share the results with investors without involving them in the intricacies of the workflow.
3. The third stakeholder is the customers
As a rule, clients are also Informed Parties, and in terms of interest, they are probably the ones who root for the project to be realised almost more than anyone else. Why? Because the reason why the project exists is the order from the client. It is important to take into account the client's peculiarities and wishes, and it is also important not to go overboard with notifications, especially for microtasks.
Let's take a situation where a client orders turnkey website development from an agency. It is important to make a RACI matrix, and dividing the global task into subtasks, such as "design solution development", "text content development", "programming", etc. For each of these tasks in the RACI model there will be different Executors, but the results of each stage should be reported to the client. Moreover, expect his approval, unless otherwise agreed.
Now consider a situation in which a client orders the printing of a hundred business cards from a printing company. He is given a deadline of two days, and three hours after leaving the print shop, they tell him that they have updated the toner in the printer; urs later, another five ho they tell him that - oh, joy! - tomorrow, the order will be taken into print; the next day, they will write that the order has been taken into print, etc. Such a situation for a number of busy customers can be extremely joyless and even annoying. Therefore, if you are in doubt about how often a client needs interaction, check with him before making the RACI matrix.
By the way, you can keep in touch with your customers in an unobtrusive way with Voiset: it can send your customers important notifications about completed work.
4. The fourth stakeholder is suppliers
Suppliers are all those individuals or companies that provide services or goods that you need to make the project complete. Note that suppliers can also provide services. In other words, this is the category where we can include those people or companies that will help you in the form of counselling in completing the project. And we will also include those people or companies who will bring you the goods you need. Therefore, in the RACI matrix, suppliers are most often either Consultants or Informed Parties.
It is important to liaise with suppliers on an ongoing basis, especially if they provide a niche service or product. Research shows that this improves teamwork and increases financial benefits.
Example: Michael, a well-known businessman, decided to write a book on growing corn under unfavourable weather conditions. To be more precise, he decided not to write, but to sponsor the creation of such a book and publish it in his own name.
Let's make a RACI matrix!
The executor on the project will be author Victoria, with whom Michael has a contract to write the book with the subsequent transfer of copyright.
The person in charge is Michael's secretary Josh, who controls the deadlines for each of the chapters.
The first Consultant will be John, an agronomist with 25 years' experience, from whom Victoria will take online lessons in growing maize, based on a recording of which she will write the book.
The second Consultant will be Michael, who will talk about moments from his life that need to be covered in the book.
The informed party will be the publisher, who is waiting for Michael's book, as the latter's fame is a guarantee to him that the book will be a bestseller.
This RACI matrix is a great example of the huge role a Consultant can play in a project. If there is no agronomist John to provide the necessary information, the author will not be able to start writing the book, hence the publisher will not receive it.
5 tips for those who want to use the RACI matrix for project work
1. Get all the comprehensive information about the specifics of the task before drawing the RACI diagram
In some tasks, you need to consult experts before determining individuals' responsibility and accountability. It is important to understand all the complexities and the exact order of operations. As long as you have only a rough idea of how to carry out the project, it is best not to draw up a RACI matrix.
2. The person in charge should not always be the lead/most experienced employee
A common mistake when drawing up a RACI matrix is to put a high-level manager in charge. It is important to distribute the workload evenly without creating a bottleneck because one person has the last word when approving a dozen projects. Most likely, there is a fairly experienced person on the team who would be happy to take on the role of responsible. It will indicate to him that he is valued, and he is very likely to do his best to show himself at his best. If there is no such person in the team - and it is better to have none - it is worth considering expanding or regrouping the team.
3. Do not assign multiple Responsible Persons to the same task in the RACI matrix
It seems that the more reviewers, the better the result, but in fact it is just the opposite. Firstly, confusion arises because the Responsible Persons may not have much contact with each other. And even if they do, they may not have time to discuss all the current tasks. In this case, each of them will have their own personal opinion and vision, sometimes - radically opposite. This will only confuse the Executor rather than motivate him. Secondly, from the first point follows ... irritation. Often it is better to let a good contractor do his work quietly, without creating unnecessary pressure.
4. Distribute the workload evenly
One of the most common mistakes in organising work on projects is to place enormous responsibility on some team members, while the workload of others is barely noticeable. And this mistake is understandable. There are always employees who are "in the open" and those who prefer to stay in the shadows.
While in the past, distributing an even workload was more of a manager's talent, today more and more teams are using Voiset for this purpose. Artificial intelligence is excellent at scheduling (Link) and load balancing. It not only analyses the workload of each team member, but also selects the best time in the employee's schedule to do the necessary work. This is convenient for project managers, and it also reduces internal tension in the team: you don't have to worry about doing more or less than your colleagues.
5. Use Voiset to implement the RACI matrix
A RACI document in memo format is very likely not to be utilised as well as you would like if departments remain siloed. To get the results you need, leverage Voiset's AI-powered scheduler to make it easier to get results.
Is it better to use RAPID rather than RACI?
Sometimes RAPID is suggested as a substitute for RACI - it is another tool for managers, the functionality of which is very different from RACI. In the latter, the emphasis is on assigning responsibility for achieving results for each of the stages. RAPID focuses on how decisions are made and what actions will be taken by the team.
There is no denying the importance of decision making in the project management process, but it is important to realise that this is not the entire process for the task. This is why sometimes these models are used together rather than as opposing models.
Voiset, RACI and team reporting
If you decide to use RACI to work on a project, you will need to address several significant issues. The main one is that it is impossible to anticipate the entire workflow and build a perfect fit for every situation. You have just created a RACI matrix for each of 20 tasks, but the key Consultant of the project has left to conquer Everest, and the programmer (the Executor of 3 tasks) has broken his arm. To keep your workflow on track, it's important to stay flexible, and Voiset gives your team that flexibility!
Voiset makes it easy to make changes
Quickly, online, you can make the necessary changes without stopping work. All team members who are connected to a particular project will see the changes and can continue working without pause. If you are able to make quick decisions and make changes, Voiset can help you communicate changes instantly, thus levelling one of the weakest points of the RACI matrix.
Voiset helps you to see the readiness of each of your tasks
If you divide a project into 10 tasks, and the Executor for the third task starts work after the first two tasks are completed, he will be able to track the progress of the first two tasks. You will also be able to set deadlines for all tasks in Voiset, and if they change, adjust them for each project, including interdependent ones. And you don't have to do complex calculations to do it - artificial intelligence will help you with calculations of all possible shifts and rearrangements of tasks.
Voiset will HEAR you
Dictate a new task to Voiset and it will add it either to your personal calendar or to a project workspace. You don't have to spend time organising and entering tasks: for many managers who switch between dozens/hundreds of tasks throughout the day, voice input is an indispensable and infinitely valuable option.
When putting together a RACI matrix, assign all employees, customers, investors and suppliers to the main categories of the matrix for each of the tasks. And to successfully implement the RACI matrix, you will need a special assistant who can help to offset the uncertainty and variability. You need Voiset!
