COEPD – Center of Excellence for Professional Development Happy Learning
Answer:
Project management is the management of project to achieve specific project objectives within agreed parameters.
Followings are the 5 basic phases involve in the project management process :
- Project Initiation
- Project Planning
- Project Execution
- Project Monitoring and Controlling
- Project Closing
In Project initiation phase a business case define the project on a broad level. Create the Project Charter.
The project charter contains information related to business case, business background, scope of project, goals of the project, person involved, milestones, budget, expected timeline, etc.
Next identify key project stakeholders for the project, these are the people who are to be involved directly or indirectly in the project. Create the RACI matrix for underlined project.
RACI matrix is most common way of mapping stakeholder as per their importance in project.
A RACI Matrix is a document mostly used by project management teams to identify persons having significant impact related to successfully complete project.
The Acronym for RACI word is as given below
R stands for Responsible,
A stands for Accountable,
C stands for Consulted,
I stands for Informed.
Responsible
These are people who are responsible for execution of all project related task. In project there are Responsible person for project like Project manager, project sponsor, delivery head, Business analyst.
Accountable
These are key the decision maker person whose main responsibility to complete project within time and budget. Accountable peoples include project manager, business sponsor, business owner and key stakeholders.
Consulted
These people or group comes into picture while facing any problem during project, include head of different department. Apart from that if organization need any guidance related to information security, compliances these peoples need to be approached very first. These are very professional expert people in their field.
Informed
These are individuals or group involved in the project need to be updated about the management decision on different issue in project. These people may not be part of key decision making related to project also their attendance is optional for meeting related to kick off and certain demos of a project
The Benefits of RACI matrix
Below are some of the benefits from using RACI matrix for a project
Detailed Project Plan and Gantt chart
Project schedule and Gantt chart can be created with help of roles and responsibility defined in the RACI matrix
Communications and meeting planning
RACI matrix enable team member know who is doing what. A matrix focused on actions associated with each task is much more beneficial to the team. Who is responsible planning the work? Who will be helping on the task in case of difficulty? Who are the key stakeholders has authority to approve or sign off on the results of the task?, It helps project manager to manage resources, mitigate risk plan well before project gets started.
Limitations of RACIs Matrix
Below are some limitation related to Applying RACI matrix for a project
Role limitations based on task
RACI matrix just gives information about different person roles for different task, but never highlights what needs to be done?
Not Suitable for the agile mind-set
It is most suited for waterfall methodology based project.
