<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.800000190734863px">The person doing a task always ends up, to one extent or another, deferring to the Cost of the task: the cost in time, the cost in effort, the cost in money and social capital. In order to prevent the Costs from becoming the ultimate arbiter of what gets done, someone else should be responsible for looking out for the Value of the project: making sure that what's being done is done completely and as it needs to be in the end. <div>
<br></div><div>I think that the Responsible party (in RACI) should have the authority they need to get tasks done; the Accountable party should have the authority to tell the Responsible party whether they're done or not. Some of you will recognize this as a Product Owner / Dev Lead split.</div>
<div><br></div><div>--S</div></div><div class="" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:12.800000190734863px"></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jun 25, 2014 at 10:11 AM, Michael Schaffer <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mwschaffer@gmail.com" target="_blank">mwschaffer@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Thank you David for that clarification.<div><br></div><div>In my experience, the one "rule" is that Responsibility and Authority should be closely bound. If you carry the responsibility (for getting something done), you need the Authority to make decisions (for example, to spend money). The "responsible" party is the one that sets the direction ... the "what", in terms of "what are we doing?", and perhaps "why?"</div>
<div><br></div><div>David's renaming of "Accountable" to "Assists" is helpful, in that it clarifies that those people are supporting the decisions and direction of the Responsible party. </div><div>
<br></div><div>That said, a good "Responsible" party should use his/her team (of all the other roles) to build consensus and seek expertise wherever it resides. The "Assisters" (the "doers") need enough authority to execute the plan (they are responsible for the "how", as "How are we going to do this task?")</div>
<div><br></div><div>---</div><div><br></div><div>I hope that bit of Management 101 is useful.</div><div><br></div><div>Michael</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all">
<div>-------------------------<br>Michael Schaffer<br><a href="mailto:mwschaffer@gmail.com" target="_blank">mwschaffer@gmail.com</a><br>---<br></div>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="h5">On Wed, Jun 25, 2014 at 9:43 AM, davidfine <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:d@vidfine.com" target="_blank">d@vidfine.com</a>></span> wrote:<br></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div><div class="h5">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
Wish I could have been there to clarify how the RACI model was used
at my nonprofit. (We used the version called DARCI because it was
less of a flat hierarchy). <br>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsibility_assignment_matrix#RACI_.28alternative_scheme.29" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsibility_assignment_matrix#RACI_.28alternative_scheme.29</a><br>
<br>
<dl style="margin-top:0.2em;margin-bottom:0.5em;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:14.933333396911621px;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<dd style="line-height:1.6;margin-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.1em;margin-right:0px">
<dl style="margin-top:0.2em;margin-bottom:0.5em">
<dt style="font-weight:bold;margin-bottom:0.1em"><i>Responsible</i></dt>
<dd style="line-height:1.6;margin-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.1em;margin-right:0px">There should be
exactly one person with this assignment for each task. They
delegate and work and make sure their team has everything
they need to get it done to spec. They make adjustments to
the plan as needed. They are the point of contact, and the
one that reports back about progress. They are the one
person whose neck is on the line. <br>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
<dl style="margin-top:0.2em;margin-bottom:0.5em;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:14.933333396911621px;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<dd style="line-height:1.6;margin-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.1em;margin-right:0px">
<dl style="margin-top:0.2em;margin-bottom:0.5em">
<dt style="font-weight:bold;margin-bottom:0.1em"><i>Assists
aka Accountable<br>
</i></dt>
<dd style="line-height:1.6;margin-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.1em;margin-right:0px">Those who assist
completion of the task. The worker bees. Most tasks will
have many, all coordinated by the 'Responsible'. They often
have more expertise in their work than the 'R' does, so they
get to choose what tools to use and other specifics that
weren't covered by the spec. For small tasks the 'R' and 'A'
may be the same person. <br>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
<dl style="margin-top:0.2em;margin-bottom:0.5em;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:14.933333396911621px;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<dd style="line-height:1.6;margin-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.1em;margin-right:0px">
<dl style="margin-top:0.2em;margin-bottom:0.5em">
<dt style="font-weight:bold;margin-bottom:0.1em"><i>Consulted</i></dt>
<dd style="line-height:1.6;margin-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.1em;margin-right:0px">Those whose
opinions are sought; and with whom there is two-way
communication. Outside experts. Other teams who will be
impacted by your work. <br>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
<dl style="margin-top:0.2em;margin-bottom:0.5em;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:14.933333396911621px;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<dd style="line-height:1.6;margin-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.1em;margin-right:0px">
<dl style="margin-top:0.2em;margin-bottom:0.5em">
<dt style="font-weight:bold;margin-bottom:0.1em"><i>Informed</i></dt>
<dd style="line-height:1.6;margin-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.1em;margin-right:0px">Those who are kept
up-to-date on progress; and with whom there is one-way
communication. The mailing list.<br>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl><div><div>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div>On 6/25/14, 7:25 AM, Naomi Most wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre>Greetings Rebooters,
TL;DR -- if your name was on the board yesterday, please start a
thread right now on the Build list to describe your area(s) of
Accountability and recruit help.
We talked last night about using the "Responsibility Assignment
Matrix" to manage our projects.
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsibility_assignment_matrix" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsibility_assignment_matrix</a>
Click on that link to the expanded definitions.
Last night we attempted to assign an "accountable" role to each
project and collect any interested "consulting" or "responsible"
roles.
The "informed" role goes to the Build mailing list. I'll read it
obsessively and occasionally pry for more information when I think
someone's missed some information that another project needs.
CONCERNS about this system:
There was a lot of mixup between "accountable" and "responsible" in
our discussion last night. I was a little sleep-deprived and couldn't
keep them straight myself.
We may want to make the world easier *and* more fun for ourselves by
making up our own parallel system. For example:
Accountable = BOFH
Responsible = Developer
Consulted = Bikeshedder
Informed = Mailing List
(We can do better than that, of course.)
Or we can just all agree to get really good at knowing the difference
between "responsible" and "accountable", but as a user interface, I
wouldn't call this nomenclature intuitive.
DISCUSS! :)
Cheers,
Naomi
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr">Shannon Lee<br>(503) 539-3700<br><br>"Any sufficiently slow descent into barbarism is indistinguishable from normalcy."<div> -- @mediapathic<br>
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