RACI matrix in relation to change management

Change processes necessitate many methods of measurements. An example is the RACI model. This model emanates from the assumption that changes will not happen on its own. People bring changes, and the RACI model apportions what and who will do it. The RACI matrix in relation to change management is simple and used to identify roles in the change process. In simple words “who will do what.”

In the efficient completion of cross-divisional projects, RACI model is useful. For example, if a change process affecting finance, HR and production altogether, RACI will ensure efficient execution.  

A role is a particular description of a group of tasks. Many personnel can perform a task, given the abilities of the business. On the other way, one person can perform many roles. Businesses should assign roles based on skills. It goes a long way to show how good business can manage the change process and RACI matrix in relation to change management will streamline the process for effective and efficient outcome.

In today’s dynamic environment business undergoes change process many times. RACI is good to streamline the assignment of roles to workers in the change process. For efficient change process, personnel must know the duties they will perform.

RACI Acronym

Coming back to RACI model the word RACI is an acronym of:

1. Responsible: Those who are responsible for delivering the outcome. Actual peoples who will do the job.
2. Accountable: The one who is accountable for the end result. The managers who will review and approve the task. They can ask for changes in the job if required before approval.
3. Consulted:  The specialists or subject experts on the matter. Responsible and accountable seek their expert opinion at the start of the task. They are asked to review the job at the end if necessary.
4. Informed: the upper management and other stakeholders. These are the peoples kept up-to-date of the outcome.

RACI Project Management

RACI is an abbreviation of the following four words on the basis of which all the analyses of RACI are carried out. All these words are correlated with each other when an analysis is carried out.

Responsible: it is a person who is responsible for the completion of the task and its final delivery. The ‘Responsible’ role is one of the most important divisions in a RACI project management. It is what serves as the initiator of the project and the performance of the ‘Responsible’ individual is capable of directly influencing the whole project management. Anything that a ‘Responsible’ individual does will affect the project and the other assigned roles under the project management. Examples: a software developer who is programming a particular application

Accountable: a person who is held responsible or accountable for the results of that particular task. The individual appointed with this role is basically the manager of the task or project that is being progressed. Anything positive or negative related to the project will cause the ‘Accountable’ individual to be held answerable. Examples: the project manager who is looking after the deadline, details, requirements and features of the software that is being developed by the software developer

Consulted: it is the person who is consulted for the feedback or comments on the task carried out. In other words, the individual who is appointed with the role of ‘Consulted’ or ‘Consulter’ is basically the instructor or adviser who is analyzing the project. This role plays an essential part in project management since the consulter can either be someone who knows his thing and is pretty much confident about the strategies of project management or someone who is completely unaware of what needs to be done next. A project can either be delayed, mishandled or perfectly managed with the help of the role of the ‘Consulted’ one. Examples: the adviser who is indirectly helping the ‘Responsible’ role by keeping a sharp eye on the deadline of the project and is the producer relevant advices to help both the ‘Responsible’ and ‘Accountable’ roles in the completion of the project with an expected quality and within the final delivery time period

Informed: a person that needs to be informed of the overall task and the decisions that are being carried out. He or she is the one with whom complete transparency of the internal details of the task and the external details are shared with and is aware of simply every single inch of the project or a task. Examples: the project administrator under whom all the above three roles are placed. The project administrator will be receiving regular updates of the software that is being developed and its progress, the performance of the ‘Consulted’ role in helping the ‘Responsible’ role and the important information regarding the time remaining and the final date of the project delivery from the ‘Accountable’ role.

All these words are the names of actual roles in a project management with each responsible for a distinctive task. Each one of these roles are linked together and together help in project management.

RACI Matrix

A RACI Matrix which is also known as the ‘Responsibility Assigned Matrix’ or ‘Linear Responsibility Chart’ helps to describe and clarify the roles of project management. A RACI Matrix is applied in case there are possibilities of role confusion such as the unawareness regarding what individuals in each role are responsible for. Therefore the major function of a RACI Matrix is the interpretation of the roles of project management by graphically dividing the roles according to the tasks they are responsible for in a particular project.

A RACI Matrix is constructed in such a way as to simplify the whole project management by the illustration of a single chart. The format of a RACI Matrix is as follows:

According to an example RACI Matrix above, there are four possible problems that can be easily solved with the implementation of the RACI paradigm.

Roles’ Confusion: Simplification of the roles is the prime role and objective of a RACI Matrix. As evident from the matrix above, each role and its possible responsibilities have been clearly manifested by the word ‘ASSIGNED’ written on the tasks which are to be under the supervision of a particular role. This ensures that the project is going smooth and that no clashes are caused by the mixture of tasks

Tasks Division: With its clean and clear graphical illustration, the RACI Matrix also aims to divide the tasks into different columns so as to make sure that each role is aware of the number of tasks it is doing and to avoid the poor case in which one or more tasks are being performed by the same person even though he or she may not be responsible for it.  

Misunderstood Tasks: This is one of the most common problems in project management and is easily solvable drawing up a RACI Matrix. Many times it happens that a particular role is not able to understand what exactly was it required to do and how so. These confusions and misunderstandings are cleared when the tasks are divided and the roles are properly defined by the RACI Matrix.

Conclusively, the RACI Matrix in relation to change management is one of the easiest and the simplest way of supporting a project management. Though there are alternatives to this method, RACI Matrix still stands on the top of the list because the chief tasks performed by the RACI Paradigm are not easily done so by the other alternatives. However, even though the RACI Matrix is very supportive in management of projects but it is still certainly not a necessity. But if drawn up can ease up the management and smoothen the work by up up to x10 times.

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