Responsibility and ownership

While executing a big project, everything often seems to be going fine at first. The project roadmap is detailed and comprehensive with clear milestones. Resource plans and stakeholder commitments are in place. However, soon things may start falling apart with missed deadlines and forgotten tasks.

This often happens due to a lack of clarity on project roles and responsibilities. Clear roles and responsibilities are a critical success factor for any project. Without them, projects can quickly get derailed and stakeholders are left trying to manage through exceptional methods with time/budget overrun.

How do we collectively collaborate?

A Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed (RACI) matrix—like we mentioned in the project scoping section—is a useful tool that defines and documents ownership and responsibility at each stage of the project. Within the matrix, every task, milestone, and decision in the project is mapped out to specific roles or individuals. It helps project management to streamline the processes by ensuring each team member and stakeholder understands their specific roles. This should be defined in the planning phase of the project and accepted by each stakeholder.

Table describing the RACI framework

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