PMGT1865 Chap.12 Roles, Responsibilities and the RACI Matrix
Roles, Responsibilities and the RACI Matrix
Managing the human side of a project means organising, directing and leading the people doing the work, and the team is defined widely: everyone who contributes to the project work, including internal staff, contract staff, suppliers and volunteers.
The plan covering them has nine named elements, from roles and responsibilities and required competencies through team structure, the staffing schedule and resource calendars, acquisition, training, transition, performance management and conflict escalation. It documents a whole working life for a person: how internal staff are selected, seconded, onboarded, allocated work, managed, reviewed, rewarded and offboarded.
Five sub-plans support it, and three of them belong to this chapter. The organisation breakdown structure defines the organisational relationships and gives clarity of reporting both inside the team and in the governance above the project manager. The roles and responsibilities table records people, roles and delegated authority.
The responsibility assignment matrix is the intersection of the work breakdown structure and the organisation breakdown structure, defining who is responsible for each item of work.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Who the project team includes, and why suppliers and volunteers have to appear in the plan
- 02
The nine elements of a human resource plan, and the verb most projects forget
- 03
The five sub-plans, and where each one surfaces elsewhere in this guide
- 04
Why the make, team or buy plan is filed with the people plan rather than with procurement
- 05
The organisation breakdown structure and the two directions of reporting clarity it produces
- 06
Seven organisational structures ordered by where project authority actually sits
- 07
Weak against strong matrix, and what the difference does to a project manager's plan
- 08
The roles and responsibilities table, and the delegated authority column that carries the information
- 09
The matrix as an intersection of two hierarchies, and the four RACI letters
- 10
Reading the matrix down its columns as well as across its rows
Building a matrix for one branch of the work
- +1Write the roles table first with the authority column filled. Sponsor approves design and variations above the agreed threshold. Project manager directs the work, approves within threshold and owns the schedule. Site supervisor directs on site labour and plant. Services engineer designs and certifies drainage and irrigation. Finance officer reconciles committed against actual cost.
- +1Take the rows from the breakdown rather than from a task list, with the same numbering that appears in the schedule and the budget. That is what makes the matrix an intersection rather than a second parallel plan.
- +1Assign one accountable entry per row. Drainage design is a technical approval, so the sponsor signs it. Excavation and irrigation are delivery, so the project manager signs them. The final account is a financial approval, so the sponsor signs it.
- +1Assign the responsible entries. Drainage design and irrigation installation belong to the services engineer, excavation to the site supervisor, and the final account to the finance officer.
- +1Fill the consulted and informed entries deliberately. The project manager is consulted on drainage design because it drives the schedule, the services engineer on excavation because the trench profile has to match the design, and the site supervisor on irrigation because it shares the trench.
- +1Read the rows and then the columns. Every row has exactly one accountable entry and at least one responsible entry, and no row is entirely informed. Down the columns, the services engineer holds two of the four responsible entries.
Key terms
- Organisation breakdown structure
- The hierarchy defining organisational relationships, the frame against which pieces of work are handed to people. It makes reporting lines legible inside the project team and in the governance structure above the project manager.
- Weak matrix
- A structure in which people are delegated from functional or divisional units to a project for a period, while managerial authority is retained by their functional managers.
- Strong matrix
- The same arrangement as a weak matrix, except that managerial authority is transferred temporarily to the project manager for the duration of the work.
- Roles and responsibilities table
- A table recording people, their assigned roles, and the responsibilities and delegated authority attached to each role. The authority column is the one that carries information.
- Responsibility assignment matrix
- The intersection of the work breakdown structure and the organisation breakdown structure, defining who is responsible for each item of work and who else is involved.
- Accountable
- The RACI letter marking who provides approval or sign off for a work package. Responsibility can be shared across several people; accountability cannot, so exactly one entry per row is permitted.
Roles, Responsibilities and the RACI Matrix FAQ
Why can there only be one accountable entry per row?
Because accountability is the right to approve, and two people who can both approve means neither has to. The sign off can then be claimed by either and owned by neither, which is precisely the situation the letter exists to prevent. If a row genuinely needs two approvals, the work package is really two packages, and the fix belongs back in the decomposition rather than in the matrix.
What does reading the matrix down its columns tell me?
Two things the rows cannot show. A column carrying a responsible entry on almost every row identifies the person the project is quietly betting on, and that is usually the first place a schedule fails. A column containing nothing but informed entries identifies somebody who is on the distribution list and contributing nothing, which is either a wasted seat or a consultation that should be happening.
Neither reading is visible from the rows.
Why does an organisation chart belong in a unit about time and cost?
Because it is how a resource estimate gets attached to somebody who can be asked to deliver it. The organisation breakdown structure and the matrix appear in the unit's own materials as tools of resource management rather than as separate topics.
The structure also decides how much authority a project manager actually has: in a weak matrix you can build an excellent resource plan and have no power to hold anybody to it, which is a specific and writable risk.
Assessment move
The assessable artefacts here are constructed rather than described, so build them rather than reading about them. Take a branch of your own work breakdown structure, invent five roles, and produce both the table and the matrix.
Then mark yourself the way a marker will: are the rows genuine breakdown items with their numbering intact, are the columns roles from a structure rather than an ad hoc list of names, does every row carry exactly one accountable entry, and does the authority column say what each role may decide without asking rather than restating the job title. Finish with the two reads.
Across the rows, look for two approvers and for rows that are entirely informed. Down the columns, look for the role carrying too much and the role carrying nothing. Write one sentence about what the column read revealed, because a matrix produced and never read is an artefact, and a matrix that produces a named risk has done its job. Use role titles rather than real names, and never reproduce anybody's contact details.
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