PMGT5871 Chap.7 Human Resource Planning and the RACI Chart
Human Resource Planning and the RACI Chart
People are planned like any other resource. This chapter sets out where project staff come from, the elements of human resource planning and the HR management plan, and the sub-plans that support it.
It draws an organisation breakdown structure separating governance from the team, builds a RACI chart that joins the WBS to the OBS, and explains how make, team or buy decisions change the work inside each WBS branch, with a worked clinic fit-out.
Questions on this week usually test structure and consistency: who reports to whom in the OBS, whether a RACI row has exactly one accountable person, and whether a sourcing decision has been carried through to the right plan. The Week 6 tutorial asks groups to build a roles and responsibilities table and a RACI chart for their case-study project, which makes the HR section of the group plan concrete.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Sources of project staff
- 02
Elements of human resource planning
- 03
The HR management plan and its sub-plans
- 04
Organisation breakdown structure
- 05
Roles and responsibilities table
- 06
Responsibility assignment matrix and RACI
- 07
Make, team or buy decisions
Worked example · free
Making make, team or buy decisions
- 1Layout is make: unpack it into technical design activities.
- 1Equipment is buy: the branch holds supplier selection, contracting and monitoring.
- 1Telehealth is team: shared cost and proceeds bring both technical and procurement work.
Key terms
- Organisation breakdown structure
- A tree showing reporting relationships and lines of authority within the team and the governance above it.
- Responsibility assignment matrix
- The intersection of the WBS and the OBS, defining who is responsible for each work item.
- Make, team or buy
- The sourcing decision for each WBS item between in-house work, a cost-sharing partnership and outsourcing.
- Financial delegation
- The level of spending authority a person holds in the project, recorded in the roles table.
Human Resource Planning and the RACI Chart FAQ
What does each letter in RACI mean?
Responsible is the person who does the work, Accountable gives approval and sign-off, Consulted contributes to the work, and Informed must be kept up to date. A RACI chart is one form of the responsibility assignment matrix.
What is the difference between team and buy?
Team means partnering with another organisation so that both share development costs and any income the result earns, so the item holds technical and procurement work. Buy means outsourcing, so the item holds procurement activities such as selecting a supplier and monitoring the contract.
What does the HR management plan document?
It explains how employees are chosen, seconded and inducted, how work is handed to them, and how they are managed, appraised, rewarded and finally released, backed by sub-plans such as the OBS, a skills domain matrix, a roles and responsibilities table and the RACI chart.
What is an organisation breakdown structure?
It is a tree documenting the reporting relationships between project participants and the lines of authority, both within the project team below the project manager and in the governance structure above, such as a steering committee and project management office.
What does a roles and responsibilities table record?
It names the people assigned to project roles and records each role's description, the responsibilities within the project, who the person reports to and their level of authority or financial delegation, which decides what they can approve.
Where do project staff come from?
The Week 6 slides list internal staff and employees, plus contract staff, suppliers and volunteers. The HR plan has to cover how each group is acquired and managed, and a skills gap among internal staff is often what moves an item from make to buy.
Exam move
Take the WBS you drew for Chapter 2 and build its RACI chart with four or five roles, then audit it: one A per row, at least one R per row, and no column overloaded with R entries. Draw the OBS for the same project with the governance band above the project manager. For make, team or buy, write one example of each from your own experience and the work each adds to the WBS.
Finally, list the nine HR planning elements as a lifecycle from acquisition to transition, because that order makes them easier to recall in an exam. When you draw the OBS and RACI for the same project, check that every name on the RACI also appears in the OBS, and that no one is accountable for work outside their line of authority.
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