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- Hey, thanks for checking out Coffee with Brett.
That's actually me
and I'm the Director of Education at TeamGantt,
and I've been managing projects for over 20 years.
That's a long time.
So my goal for these videos is to share
valuable project management tips with you
in super short bursts while I'm having
my second cup of morning coffee.
Trust me, I'm not caffeinated enough
until the first cup is done.
So I'm ready to jump in. Hope you are too.
Today I'm going to cover the basics of a RACI chart.
Okay so I don't know about you,
but I've worked on a few larger projects
with sizable teams and tons and tons of concurrent tasks,
and they can leave your head spinning,
just trying to keep up with things as a PM,
let alone managing them.
So if your team needs a little help
in discerning who will do what,
or even if they need to be more accountable to their tasks,
to the project and to the team,
the RACI chart is definitely going to help you.
So quick example on why I use the RACI chart
on my own projects.
So it's working on a website redesign project
where we're redesigning a main website,
as well as a few related, but honestly, separate sites.
It was all one project,
but was essentially three projects in one
with a shared scope, super tight deadlines
and a single team, albeit a larger team
to get everything done in record time.
So there was no time for confusion
or even mistakes on that project.
Okay I think I just got a pit in my stomach
thinking about that horrible project
and it was like eight years ago.
Anyway, because the project was so large,
we needed a larger team, obviously.
So we had some role duplication.
We actually had four designers on the team
and several developers.
Right away, it pay came clear to me
that I'd have to work really hard with them
to sort out who was doing what at all times,
because early on, I could already sense
and maybe even see some toe stepping starting to happen.
And there's never any time
for toe stepping on my projects.
So enter the RACI chart.
The RACI chart's are great tool you can use
on any of your projects, large or small.
The RACI chart's especially useful
in clarifying roles and responsibilities in cross functional
or cross departmental projects and processes.
RACI is actually an acronym derived
from the four key responsibilities most typically used.
They are Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed.
And I'm going to define those for you in just a second.
But first let's look at a real RACI chart.
So what you're seeing on screen is the format for the tool.
Shocker, it's in a spreadsheet.
Project managers love spreadsheets. Don't we?
All right, folks, I've got to admit here.
I actually don't love them,
but this one super simple and so useful.
So I do love it.
Essentially, list your team members
and maybe even your stakeholders along the top as columns
and all of your projects, tasks and milestones
on the left as rows.
As a group with your team, you can sit down
and discuss each task and assign
each person's role on the task level.
Using the letters R, A, C and I.
R is for responsible
and it basically represents those
who are actively doing the work on the task.
A is for accountable.
and that typically represents the person
who signs off on the work.
I also like to think of this person as the one who's
probably gonna take the heat if something goes wrong.
Sound familiar, project managers?
All right, moving on.
C is for consulted
and this is essentially for those team members
who are experts and consult on the work
or sometimes contribute to the work.
And finally I is for informed
and this one's for the people who simply just need to know
that the work is happening because they'll probably
have worked later on in the project.
So I like to use this exercise as an opportunity
to talk about all of the work, the tasks, the milestones,
the dependencies, and everything that goes into it
and set expectations about who is doing what
and do yourself a favor
when you're having these conversations,
keep some mental notes about how the tasks are breaking down
and who they're sitting with.
That'll give you a sense of who's best suited
to what kind of work on your team.
And honestly, folks, that's the kind of information
that'll help you get things done quickly
if a change is introduced to the project,
or maybe even if you have to staff a new project.
Getting to know your team will never hurt you
in project management.
All right, folks, that's it for this episode
of Coffee with Brett.
Thanks for checking it out.
If you want some more information about RACI charts
and you haven't done it already,
grab our free RACI chart guide and template
and get your projects and teams in order.
Trust me, it'll help you with stress levels
and even your team stress levels too.
Also make the most of flexible plans in minutes
with teamgantt.com, where you'll not only find
our project management tool,
but tons of project management education,
we're doing free live classes weekly,
recorded masterclasses, templates, guides, a blog,
a podcast, and more.
I hope you'll check it out.
Whew, I need to go re refill my coffee now.
Thanks a lot.
Good luck.
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♪ Hey ♪
♪ Do do do do do do do do do do do ♪