Clarifying Responsibilities with RACI and DACI

When the organization grows too big, it becomes unclear that who should do what and who should decide what to do. RACI and DACI are here to clarify those responsibilities.

• RACI: figuring out who do what kinds of work
• DACI: figuring out who decides what to do

The assumption here is that too many projects happen in parallel, and it is easy to lose focus. We should rely more on the team member mutually driving each other than one person as the single point of failure.

RACI

RACI is an acronym for the model:

• Responsible: who are the ones responsible for certain kinds of tasks?
• Accountable: which single one is the owner of the work and is accountable for the success and failure.
• Consulted: who are the stakeholders that should be kept in the loop before completion.
• Informed: Who should be informed of the progress though they are not formally consulted or directed contributing to the project.

DACI

RACI is an acronym for the model:

• Driver: who is driving the decision-making process to a conclusion?
• Approver: people who are approving the decision.
• Contributor: who should contribute to the decision.
• Informed: who should be informed of the final decision?

Why are they helpful?

• they make responsibilities and accountabilities clear
• the earlier those models introduced, the longer they will help the project
• they balance resource allocations to avoid the single point of failures or burnouts