{"id":282,"date":"2016-02-25T08:38:39","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T08:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tcc-net.com\/blog\/?p=282"},"modified":"2017-06-08T14:03:02","modified_gmt":"2017-06-08T14:03:02","slug":"tools-corner-raci-matrices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcc-net.com\/blog\/tools-corner-raci-matrices\/","title":{"rendered":"Tools Corner: RACI Matrices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A\u00a0key responsibility for both Business Analysts and Project Managers is that of managing <strong>stakeholders<\/strong>. Stakeholders are those individuals with a vested interest in a specific business change. Typically, they include: those directly targeted by a business change; those not directly targeted but who may be affected or involved; and those who are impacted by or may impact the change.<\/p>\n<p>As an example, let&#8217;s\u00a0consider a local library that\u00a0lends items to members of the public. A project has been initiated to replace the system that\u00a0manages borrower records,\u00a0to allow the library to handle an increase in the number of customers. \u00a0We might\u00a0identify the following stakeholders and classifications:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Directly Targeted<\/strong> by the change:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <em>Library Receptionists<\/em> are our directly targeted stakeholders. We are changing the core system they use on a daily basis.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Affected<\/strong> by the change or <strong>Involved<\/strong> in making the change:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <em>Library Stockists<\/em>\u00a0&#8211; team members who organise and restock the shelves when lent items are returned &#8211; are affected stakeholders. \u00a0This project will increase the number of borrowers that the library serves, leading to a rise in the number of items lent at any one time. We are not changing the way a library stockist works, but there will be a larger volume of items to restock and as such they are affected by the change.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Impacted<\/strong> by the change or may <strong>Impact<\/strong> the change:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Data Protection Officials<\/em>, along with other appropriate regulators, may be considered as stakeholders with the potential to impact our change. We must be sure that our solution adheres to the appropriate laws and regulations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once we have identified our stakeholders, we will want to consider how these stakeholders are involved with the different business processes related to the proposed change. A technique to help us achieve this is the use of RACI Matrices.<\/p>\n<h2>RACI Matrices<\/h2>\n<p>A RACI Matrix\u00a0is\u00a0one of a collection of\u00a0tools that can be used to\u00a0analyse stakeholders. Its purpose is to aid in the classification\u00a0of\u00a0stakeholder involvement in relevant business processes. RACI is an acronym for <strong>R<\/strong>esponsible, <strong>A<\/strong>ccountable, <strong>C<\/strong>onsulted and <strong>I<\/strong>nformed. There are several variations on RACI Matrices, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>PACSI: Perform, Accountable, Control, Suggest and Informed<\/li>\n<li>RASCI: Responsible, Accountable, Support, Consulted and Informed<\/li>\n<li>RASI: Responsible, Accountable, Support and Informed<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Each variation offers\u00a0slightly different information. For more discussion\u00a0on the varieties of RACI Matrices see: <a title=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Responsibility_assignment_matrix#Alternatives\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Responsibility_assignment_matrix#Alternatives\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Responsibility_assignment_matrix#Alternatives<\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, for the purpose of introducing the technique, we will stick to the RACI format.<\/p>\n<h2>RACI Roles<\/h2>\n<h3>Responsible<\/h3>\n<p>Responsible stakeholders are these who operate the process\u00a0we are currently inspecting. In our library, when we consider the <em>Lend Books<\/em> process, the stakeholders responsible for the operation of this process are the <em>Library Receptionists<\/em>; they take the borrower&#8217;s library card and\u00a0desired books, scan them, and then issue them to the borrower.<\/p>\n<h3>Accountable<\/h3>\n<p>Accountable stakeholders are those with ultimate responsibility for the process. Often (but not exclusively) accountable roles fall to people in management positions. The <em>Library Manager<\/em>\u00a0would be considered accountable for the <em>Lend Books<\/em> process. They have the responsibility to\u00a0ensure\u00a0accurate completion of the process.<\/p>\n<h3>Consulted<\/h3>\n<p>Consulted stakeholders are those with whom others must liaise in order to complete the process. This implies a two-way channel of communication. Our <em>Borrower<\/em>\u00a0would be a consulted stakeholder in the <em>Lend Books<\/em> process. The library receptionist needs to obtain additional information from the borrower (their library card) and potentially take payment for any overdue loans.<\/p>\n<h3>Informed<\/h3>\n<p>Unlike consulted stakeholders, informed stakeholders\u00a0are those who obtain information from a process but have no direct input. The <em>County Council<\/em>\u00a0may be an informed stakeholder. They may gather management information regarding the number of loans or the total amount of fines paid in the last month. Informed stakeholders are often informed about the task after its completion.<\/p>\n<h2>The Rules of RACI Matrices<\/h2>\n<p>There are a few rules associated with the roles in RACI Matrices. Let&#8217;s explore these before we finally see how all this becomes a matrix!<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Accountability for a process should only fall to one stakeholder group.<\/li>\n<li>Responsibility for a process should only fall to one stakeholder group.<\/li>\n<li>Consulted and Informed stakeholders are mutually exclusive. A stakeholder cannot be both Consulted and Informed.<\/li>\n<li>The only role that <em>must<\/em> be assigned is Accountable. If no other roles are assigned, the accountable stakeholder is also considered Responsible.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>The Extension of RACI to RASCI<\/h2>\n<p>It is sometimes useful to consider an additional category of\u00a0<strong>Support.<\/strong> These are the resources that support the <strong>Responsible<\/strong> role in their\u00a0work. Unlike <strong>Consulted,<\/strong> who may also provide input to the process, <strong>Support<\/strong> actively do some of the work to complete the tasks. This extra classification can be helpful in clarifying the <strong>Responsible<\/strong>\u00a0stakeholder group, where many are involved in the work.<\/p>\n<h2>Why a Matrix?<\/h2>\n<p>Now that we have an understanding of the rules of RACI Matrices, let\u2019s build one. When building a RACI Matrix, we have two types\u00a0of data that\u00a0are plotted against each\u00a0other. One is the list of stakeholders involved in the area of business under\u00a0study and the other is the list of processes we are investigating. In our library, we would likely have processes such as\u00a0<em>Lend Book<\/em>, <em>Return Book<\/em>, <em>Register New Borrowers<\/em> and <em>Set Targets<\/em>. Our stakeholders would be <em>Library Receptionist<\/em>, <em>Borrower<\/em>, <em>Library Manager<\/em>, <em>Finance Clerk<\/em>\u00a0and <em>County Council<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>When we put all of this into a matrix, we might end up with something like this:<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th><\/th>\n<th>Library Receptionist<\/th>\n<th>Borrower<\/th>\n<th>Library Manager<\/th>\n<th>Finance Clerk<\/th>\n<th>County Council<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Lend Book<\/td>\n<td>R<\/td>\n<td>C<\/td>\n<td>A<\/td>\n<td>C<\/td>\n<td>I<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Return Book<\/td>\n<td>R<\/td>\n<td>C<\/td>\n<td>A<\/td>\n<td>C<\/td>\n<td>I<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Register Borrower<\/td>\n<td>R<\/td>\n<td>C<\/td>\n<td>A<\/td>\n<td>I<\/td>\n<td>I<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Set Targets<\/td>\n<td>I<\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td>A<\/td>\n<td>I<\/td>\n<td>C<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>If we break down the row for the <em>Lend Book<\/em> process we see that the <strong>Responsible<\/strong>\u00a0role is held by the <em>Library Receptionist<\/em>. They are the ones who complete the process. The <strong>Accountable<\/strong>\u00a0role is held by the <em>Library Manager<\/em>. In this example, the <em>Library Manager<\/em> is\u00a0accountable for all the processes within their library.<\/p>\n<p>We have two <strong>Consulted<\/strong>\u00a0stakeholders:\u00a0<em>Borrower<\/em>\u00a0and <em>Finance Clerk<\/em>. When the <em>Lend Book<\/em>\u00a0process is executed, the borrower\u00a0has to liaise with the <em>Library Receptionist<\/em>\u00a0to provide the relevant information to borrow the book. The <em>Library Receptionist<\/em>\u00a0also has to request information from the <em>Finance Clerk<\/em> regarding any outstanding fines.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>County Council<\/em> are <strong>Informed<\/strong> about the output of the <em>Lend Book<\/em> process. They are interested in the number and frequency of people using the library.<\/p>\n<p>When looking at the <em>Set Targets<\/em> process, notice that there are no <strong>Responsible<\/strong> stakeholders. Based on the rules of RACI Matrices, the <strong>Accountable<\/strong> stakeholder is also considered the <strong>Responsible<\/strong> stakeholder.<\/p>\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<p>A\u00a0RACI Matrix is a structured way for\u00a0Business Analysts to identify stakeholders in\u00a0a specific set of business processes. It helps to identify roles and responsibilities, and to guide the involvement of these stakeholders in the design and implementation of business improvement activities.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-272 size-full\" src=\"\/blog\/..\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/bcs-aep-mark.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"196\" height=\"50\" \/>Want to learn more about RACI Matrices and other Business Analysis Techniques? \u00a0Why not join us for <a title=\"BCS Business Analysis Practice\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tcc-net.com\/training\/bcs-business-analysis\/business-analysis-practice\">BCS Business Analysis Practice<\/a>? You can even\u00a0go on to\u00a0become a fully certified\u00a0Business Analyst with the UK&#8217;s de facto BA scheme, the <a title=\"BCS Diploma in Business Analysis\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tcc-net.com\/training\/bcs-business-analysis\/diploma-in-business-analysis\">BCS Diploma in Business Analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A\u00a0key responsibility for both Business Analysts and Project Managers is that of managing stakeholders. Stakeholders are those individuals with a vested interest in a specific business change. Typically, they include: those directly targeted by&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,36],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcc-net.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcc-net.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcc-net.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcc-net.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcc-net.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcc-net.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":397,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcc-net.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions\/397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcc-net.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcc-net.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcc-net.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcc-net.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}