RACI >>>> The Right People on the Right Job by Jolito Ortizo Padilla

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When you are sorting out who does what during the writing and publication of a document or completing other work, it is easy to fall into confusion about everyone's roles and responsibilities. Do we have to tell Jean about changes? Should John be allowed to stop publication? Is it worth asking Simon to help with the preparations?

It is in the detail of questions such as these where , if they are not clear and agreed, problems can later occur as the individuals either compete to do the same work or leave things undone as they assume others will be picking up the job.

RACI is a simple acronym for the four role of responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed around doing a piece of work.

Responsible
This is the person who is reponsible for actually carrying out the work. He or she may be a team leader who will engage others to do the work or may do it themselves. Whichever it is., they are given the task of writing the documents or otherwise completing the action. There can be a number of doers in any task.

Accountable
The person who is accountabe has their head on the block for ensuring the work is completed to time , to budget and to quality. They may also be responsible or they could be the responsible person's manager. Sometimes they may work elsewhere in the organization , in another department, or as external consultant and their main role is the approval of the completed work.

There is usually only one person who is ultimately acountable for the overall work, although individuals may be acountable within the team for separate activities and outputs ( and for which RACI may be used). A common question in a RACI -managed debate is: "Who's got A?" This is effectively saying: Who gets to make decision?"

The relationship between the responsible and the accountable person is clearly important and if they are not the same person or do not have a formal working relationship then some work may be needed to ensure they can collaborate effectively.

Consulted
When writing something where expertise comes from elsewhere or getting something done when others have an interest, it is often either useful or politic to ask them for input or otherwise garner their opinion in some way. This may be achieved through  surveys, focus groups, meetings, reviews or other interactions.

A trap can occur where those consulted think they have the R or A authority to change the work being done or block completion. However, while their opinion may be taken into account, they do not have this ability unless it is explicitly given.

Informed
These are people who are to be informed about the work, but who have no say about its content and no control over how it is implemented. This may well include people lower down the organization who will be affected by planned changes or people from other departments who might be impacted in some way.

In implementing change, keeping people informed is known to be good practice , although the style and timing of this must also be carefully planned.

Using RACI
In any planning activity, you can consider RACI for all activities as well as for general roles in the work. Roles can change significantly as dictated by expertise and formal position in the organization.

RACI planning is also a useful tool for highlighting issues such as "too many cooks spoil the broth", "not enough communication" and "nobody to do the grunt work". It can be useful to check that the work being allocated suits the style, preferences , expertise, and general job responsibilities of the people involved.