The Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)

It takes a lot of effort to keep a large project running smoothly. With a large number of variables, people, and deliverables, it’s hard to keep on top of everything that’s happening. Consider the following scenario:

Hal (the distressed project manager): "What do you mean, we don’t have the test results yet?! What has Katy been doing? Get Katy!"

Katy: "No, Hal, I wasn’t responsible for getting that done. Joan has more expertise in that area, remember? I’ll ask Joan what happened."

Joan: "Gee, Katy, I know I have more experience with these reports, but I was waiting for you to contact me so we could review them together."

Do you recognize anyone you know? This type of situation is repeated daily in organizations across the globe. And most of the time, there’s no incompetence or bad intentions involved. More often, problems like this are the result of inadequate planning and poor communication.

Successful projects have a clear breakdown of who is ultimately responsible for each aspect of the project. Without clear, written, and agreed-upon accountability, it’s far too easy to for communication to fail and for responsibilities to be muddled.

So how do you avoid this?

Developing a Responsibility Assignment Matrix

One tool that project managers use to keep these assignments clear is the Responsibility Assignment Matrix (also called the RAM, or the Responsibility Matrix). This matches deliverables with the people who are responsible for them. For every piece of the project, the matrix shows who needs to contribute what for the project to be completed.

For example, let’s say that you’re upgrading your customer service delivery system, and you need to train your staff to use new procedures and tools.

Step One: Define Your Deliverables

Using a Work Breakdown Structure, you define three key deliverables for this training project, with a few subcategories for each:

• Identify training needs:
• Survey current practice.
• Define new practice.
• Coordinate the training:
• Locate resources.
• Prepare training schedule.
• Manage training.
• Evaluate the results:
• Re-survey practices after implementation.
• Analyze results.

Step Two: Identify the People Involved

Map out who is on your project team. By creating a chart of individuals who are available, you can then delegate work assignments based on expertise, and you can recruit talent that you’re missing. This step is often called an “Organization Breakdown Structure” because it creates an organizational chart for your team.

Level 1

Project Manager: Kim

Level 2

Customer Service Manager: Ron

Level 3

Customer Experience Coordinator: Terry

Training Coordinator: Nancy

Customer Service Supervisor: Reagan

Level 4

Customer Service Representative: John

Step Three: Create Your Responsibility Matrix

Draw a matrix. The deliverables are the column headings, and the people are the row titles.

Identify training needs

Coordinate the training

Evaluate the results

Person

Survey current practice

Define new practice

Locate resources

Prepare training schedule

Re-survey practices

Analyze results

PM: Kim

A

A

A

A

CSM: Ron

A

R

I

A

R

CEC: Terry

R

C

R

R

TC: Nancy

I

R

R

CSS: Reagan

R

C

C

R

C

CSR: John

C

C

C

With your team, determine accountabilities as well as other levels of involvement for each item in your Work Breakdown Structure.

A useful framework to determine role assignments is RACI. This defines four levels of involvement:

R = Responsible (People who do the work).
A = Accountable (People who make sure the work gets done).
C = Consulted (People who provide input before and during the work).
I = Informed (People who are kept informed of progress).

Project Management Institute, "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)" – Fifth Edition, (2013). Copyright and all rights reserved. Material from this publication has been reproduced with the permission of PMI.

Other levels of involvement may include “assist”, “coordinate”, “sign off”, and “review”. You can decide how to assign responsibility for your project and your team. But you must be sure that ultimate accountability and responsibility for performing the work are agreed upon and communicated.

Step Four: Communicate

When your Responsibility Assignment Matrix is complete, communicate it to all stakeholders. It’s a good idea to post it in an area where people will see it. Used effectively, the RAM helps people understand what they should be doing at all stages of the project.