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It is essential to get a project from client. In any project, there are multiple phases such as initiation, planning, execution, control and the implementation. A project is a unique process that consists of a set of coordinated activities with start dates and end with the aim of achieving an objective in accordance with specific requirements and every project has its stakeholders. The Business analyst in any project initiate the process is to communicate with the stakeholder and do stakeholder analysis and know the high priority demands.
Stakeholder analysis identifying all actors involves in the action, means identifying stakeholder involves in particular project, to examine their respective roles, interests, ability to participate and estimate the degree of collaboration.
RACI matrix is Important method for stakeholder analysis used by many companies especially by the IT companies. Sometimes RACI matrix called as a responsibility assignment matrix, It is a way to identify your project team’s role and responsibilities for any task, milestone or project deliverable. RACI matrix is used to distribute and map duties and powers within a project. It is an important project communication tool because all stakeholders can see clearly who contact for each activity is.
RACI matrix plays a major role in SDLC methodology as well, In SDLC what process IT company follows to develop a project/software. In waterfall sequential model there are 7phases in which roles and responsibility of stakeholder has changed. and In agile scrum which is very flexible methodology with the help of RACI matrix one can easily ensure that particular task and decision is taken by which stakeholder.
The purpose of RACI matrix is to provide a clear understanding and agreement on who does what on a project. RACI matrix is great way to avoid having too many resources allocated to one task. And helping team members understand each other’s roles.
The RACI matrix is a management tool which provides immediate information on the steps taken for those responsible for the project. RACI is an acronym that denotes a value describing people suited to specific project.
To get the better idea of RACI matrix, the abbreviation that stands for
- R– Responsible (Executes)
- A– Accountable (Check out the result and carries responsibility)
- C– Consulted (Gives input before execution or work id done, has an active role)
- I– Informed (Needs information about project’s decision and progress)
- Responsible– Who is responsible and representative for a particular project. They must complete the task, objective and take the decision and create the deliverables. He/ she has responsibility to compete the task in given time frame and also responsible for the feasibility study. And he needs to take for the actual requirements of the client and deliver a result as per the requirements of the client. Responsible person can be business analysts, developer or those who create marketing material and technical documentation.
- Accountable- The individual who is answerable for the task. The accountable person delegates and reviews the work involved in a project. They are responsible for ensuring the work is complete and suitable. Their job is to make sure the responsible person or team knows expectations of the project and complete work within time. This is someone with signature authority or the decision maker. Every individual task should have only one accountable person. Accountable parties are typically the business owner, business sponsor, key stakeholder or the manager of the key responsible party.
- Consulted– Consulted people provide input and feedback on the work being done in a project.SME and Domain expert who is influencer for the project. They have a stake in outcomes of a project. Project manager and teams should consult with these stakeholders ahead of starting a task to get input on their needs, risk and constraints and as well as at the completion of task to get feedback on the outcome. Consulted people are generally admin like server admin, network admin, DB admin.
- Informed– Informed people are those needs to keep in loop of progress of a project but not consulted with the details of every task. These people are informed about all the changes and whatever decision has taken. They could know what’s going on but they are not decision makes in the project. Informed parties are usually outside of the project team and often in different departments, they are generally client parties have informed about project progress.
Benefits of RACI in project Management-
- Clarifies role and eliminate confusion.
- Prioritize communication between team and stakeholders.
- Ensures smooth transitions.
- Help to avoid people overloaded.
- Help to avoid work overloaded.
