ARMI / RACI

[Vishwadeep Khatri]

Q 56. Though they seem to serve the same purpose, what is your preference between ARMI and RACI?  Why?

 

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[Sumanta Das]

	RACI[RASCI / RAM / Responsibility Chart]	ARMI
Acronym	Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed [Supports, Responsibility Assignment Matrix	Approver, Resource, Member, Interested Party
Definition / Understanding / Use	a) Straight forward analytical tool b. Identifies individual roles & responsibilities clearly c) Avoid confusion about what to be done and by whom d) Helps Project team members	a) analytical tool b. Helps stakeholders c) Shows how roles of stakeholders changes in different phases of a project   A – Approvers [business leader/ sponsor] R – Resource [experts/skills sets] for time M – Member [Fulltime Team] I – Interested Party[whom you need to inform the project status]
Advantage	a) Removes ambiguity between co-workers/team about who is going to do what. b. Removes ambiguity between team about the roles they are going to play c) Gives an idea to the team members about their participation on time throughout thr project.	a) Gives a clear idea about the roles to play to the stake holders. b. Gives a clear Idea about how their role is going to change over the time with respect to different phases of a project C) Gives a clear glimpse of a project including impact analysis
Difference	a) It is mainly for Team Members working in a project, a stakeholder might be a part of it.   b. It’s a matrix of roles/task to do for team members, they will see/work on it as per schedule, no need to inform anyone about status or something else but its someone’s else job to get informed. c) It is generally for lower level employees	a) It is for a stakeholders not for team members   b. you might need to inform status or other information to interested parties who are not associated with the chart     c) It is generally for stake holders, if any team member are there then he is for to keep up with the status and how it is going to affect stakeholders.
Example	Role Task R1 R2 R3 R4 T1 r   c   T2   a     T3 r c a i T4   I a r                 r – responsible a – accountable c – consulted i – informed	Stake holders D M A I C Champion I & A I & A I & A I & A I & A Mentor A & I A & I A & I A & I A & I yyyy R & M R & M R & M R & M R & M Team Member M M M M M                           I – Interested party, A – Approver, R – Resource, M - Member

 

[R Rajesh]

RACI

It is an acronym. Purpose of RACI which is put as a matrix, is to clearly articulate the roles and responsibilities

R- Responsible – who is in-charge of the activities to do the work

A – Accountable – who is for accountable for owning the work and taking decisions for providing actions

C – Consulted – who would be consulted for the activity for feedback

I – Informed – who would be the informed on the actions or decisions

 

ARMI

As a project management it can be used to analyze the support of various stakeholders as we traverse across phases of the project. The acronym stands as

A – Approver (Sponsor/business lead) whose approval is needed

R – Resource – Skills of a SME, who will be needed for a specified duration

M – Member - Who will be full time on the work

I – Interested Party – a stakeholder, who would be interested in knowing the project status

 

Let us see the difference between RACI and ARMI

S.No	RACI	ARMI
1	This will be used when we want to know who is responsible/accountable/decision-maker for a work or activity. Here focus is on the activity that needs to be completed and by whom	Here the focus is on which stakeholder is playing at what role at a given point of time (as we traverse through various stages in a project)
2	Normally this is a static chart or may not change much in terms of personnel assigned for each role (increase in team size , can increase the personnel  count in each role though)	In Every role prescribed here, change will happen much more than RACI ,as we traverse through the various stages of the project
3	This is prepared when usually there is a confusion of the activities or work being done by the team as who would be doing what or which activities	This may not necessarily happen or created in a confused state
4	There is a Consulted role here which does get involved predominantly in critical activities normally. But the personnel playing that role will not be part of the project team.	There is no equivalent role here which is similar to ‘Consulted’ role in RACI. However , ‘Resource’ role is there as an expert role which can be there for a specific period but later can be part of the project team (‘Member’ role)
5	There is no explicit Subject Matter Expert (SME) role that is mentioned here	There is explicit mentioning of SME role (‘Resource’ role)

 

 

Conclusion

As we have seen the differences, the focus on RACI is about the work, whereas the focus is on the stakeholders vis-a-vis their roles across various stages of the project. Hence i would prefer RACI matrix, given a choice.

[Rajesh Chakrabarty]

In any work, such as DMAIC/ DMADV project,which is done by more than one person, basically a team- There is a requirement to define and elaborate the following key factors for successful execution of the said work(Project / Daily operations) - clear goals, roles, processes, and interpersonal relationship (GRPI). The responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) can be used to clearly define the role and responsibility of each of the members in such teamwork.

There are 2 commonly used responsibility assignment Matrix RACI & ARMI- Noted below are the descriptions of both-


 

 

RACI breaks down the teamwork into tasks, and map out who is responsible, who is accountable, who should be consulted, and who must kept informed for each of the tasks.
 

R - Responsible
The person who is assigned to carry out that particular task (the doer).

Each task must have at least 1 responsible person.

A task can have many responsible persons.

A - Accountable
The person who holds ownership of the task, and is responsible for its success or failure.

That person is authorized to make final decision on the task.

That person has the power to accept the completion of the task.

Each task can only have 1 accountable person.

 C - Consulted
Person who can be asked to provide opinion or input about the task while it is being worked on, normally a subject matter expert (SME).

The consultation should occur before decision or action is taken.Each task can have either none, one, or more than one consulted persons, however there should not be too many.

I - Informed
Person who needs to be kept informed that a decision or action has been taken.

Each task can have either none, one, or more than one persons to be kept informed.

The RACI model can be extended to RASCI or RASIC by including a support role.
S - Support
Person who is able to help Responsible person in getting the task done.

The person possesses resource that can be shared out, or taking part in a supporting role.

Each task can have either none, one, or more than one support persons.

The ARMI is another model that serves the similar purpose to define the level of support assigned to each stakeholders.
A - Approver
The person who sign-off a milestone and approve to move on towards the next milestone.

R - Resource
Persons who have the expertise or skillsets that are required in the project.

M - Member
Persons who are the project team member.

I - Interested Party
Persons who need to be informed about up-to-date status along the project.

 

The Somewhat commonalities between RACI(S) and ARMI are

 

RACI(S) (Not in order)	ARMI (Not in order)
Accountable	Approver
Responsible
Consulted	Resource
Support	Member
Informed	Interested Party

 

As the above table demonstrates, the similarity is evident except for the fact that the accountability and Responsibility is defined and delegated more intricately in the RACI  metric. It only highlights the importance or weight given to the  competency level with regards to accountability and responsibility in the process/ activity/ project. 

To answer the question about my preference in the two is totally dependent on the required competency, authority, capability and utility of the team (participants) in regards to the work/project.

In the company that I work for, a QSR, with franchisee outlets across the country, most of the processes/ projects are done with a top down approach. At the upper level of the value stream we do a lot of work on concept building/ Ideation, problem solving , process definition, control charts etc. This requires involvement of people from the corporate team from various departments and the time and effort needs to be well planned and responsibilities / stakes  need to be allocated with due care and reason hence the RACI metric is more appropriate as we divide the responsibility amongst the Sponsor (accountable), The Project Manager (Responsible),the Experts- Dept Heads (Consulted) and the relevant Executives (support) – The developments and briefs of the project is provided and communicated to all the stakeholders in the form of a document called Manager’s Guide- which contains the GRPI with the approach pattern .

Once the said Manager’s guide is done and is passed on to the Operations team for execution the ARMI Metric is relevant as the Project Manager acts as the Approver and the Line managers who execute the activities are the Resources as they are briefed directly by the project manager They are the ones who take the lead to train and motivate the staff in the outlets to execute the defined process/ activity/ promotion / project. The staff here are the members of the activity and the line manager owns the responsibility of updating the stakeholders both internal (Support departments)and external (Customer) who are the interested parties in this activity.

In conclusion, the choice of metric is dependent on the scope for allocation and the availability and capability of the stakeholders in a given situation or scenario.

 

 

 

[Venugopal R]

ARMI stands for Approver, Resource, Member, Interested Party

 

RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed

 

For delivering an assignment that involved cross functional participants, the nature and extent of participation and involvement is brought out using the ARMI or RACI matrix. Although there appears to be interchangeability in the use of these two methods, we may best use them as below:

 

While defining a project charter, (say, a Six Sigma project), there is a requirement to identify the stakeholders and how those stakeholders will be connected to the project. ARMI provides a method to identify the roles of various stakeholder for the project.

 

The 'Approver'  provides approval for team decisions, expenses & other matters and authorizes the team to move forward at appropriate stages of the project. It could be the project sponsor, champion or the senior personnel in the organization with approval authority.

 

The 'Resource'  implies such resources possessing necessary skills or subject matter expertise relevant to the project. These resources usually stick to their jobs of expertise and are administered / consulted by the sponsors and team leaders.

 

The 'Member'  refers to those individuals who are part of the team performing various roles to execute the project. Other people who carry out tasks in the project, other than the Approver and SMEs, are termed as members. Strictly speaking, even the Approver and Resource may be members, but are specifically identified with respect to their responsibilities. 

 

'Interested' parties are those stakeholders who need to be kept informed about the progress of the project. They could be part of another function in the organization, who may be benefiting from the project, or they could be customers as well.

 

The RACI matrix is more applicable for describing the roles in a business process, rather than a six sigma project. However, we could feel some overlap in the way the roles are defined.

 

For example we may take a procurement process

 

‘Responsible’ applies to the person who has to work for getting the product/ service delivered. For instance a procurement executive is responsible to interact with the vendor, draw schedules and follow up to ensure that the part is procured at the right time.

 

‘Accountable’ applies to the person who will be directly answerable to the management (or to customer) for the expected task. In this example, it could be the Head of Supply Chain Management, to whom a team of buyers may be reporting.

 

‘Consulted’ applies to someone who has a specific knowledge or expertise related to this process and can provide assistance to the responsible person. For example, it could be a tax expert, who will provide consultation for the procurement executive when needed. The consulted person need not be responsible nor accountable for the deliverable of the process.

 

‘Informed’ applies to the people who need to be kept informed of the project and its progress. They could be the people who would be impacted by this process. For example, the Operations Head or Production Planning Head would be people who need to be informed about the progress and status with respect to the procurement of parts

 

Thus ARMI and RACI are both tools that help in developing the ‘Responsibility Matrix’, whereas they are better suited for the situations of application as discussed above.

[Kavitha Sundar]

Q 56. Though they seem to serve the same purpose, what is your preference between ARMI and RACI?  Why?

 

In the project management, whether the project involving DMAIC / DMADV methodology, the responsibility assignment matrix is to clearly defined to avoid role confusions. GRPI (Goals, roles & responsibility, Processes and interpersonal relationships to be clearly defined in the team work.

 

ARMI – stands for Approver, Resource, Member and I – interested party.

RACI / RACIS – stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed and Support

 

RACI is one of the commonly used tool to breakdown the teamwork into doable tasks, and map to each of them that who is responsible, who is accountable , whom should we consult about the assigned task and whom should be informed about the task and its progress. This is in simple a responsibility assignment matrix.

 

ARMI is similar to the RACI matrix, where it defines the level of support assigned to each of the stakeholder.

 

RACI / ARMI	Description
R - Responsible	The person assigned to the task. Simply doer. A  task should have alteast 1 and maximum responsible person to carry out.
A - Accountable	Person who holds ownership of the task & responsible for its success / failure. He who approves or rejects the task if completed. The final decision is with him. Max only 1 can be accountable for a task.
C - Consulted	It is usually SME. The SME should be consulted before taking any decision of the task, since he can provide input or opinion about the task.
I - Informed	The person who is informed about the progress and it is one way communication.
S - Support	Support team may extend help to the project team in carrying out the task by the responsible person.
A - Approver	A person who approves each milestone and help the project team to proceed to next milestone
R - Resource	Person who has expertise knowledge or domain skillset that is required In the project.
M - Member	Member of the project team
I - Interested party	People who will updated on the progress of the project along with the actions or decisions taken.

 

RACI or ARMI Procedure –

 

1.       Identify all the tasks involved in completion of the project

2.       Identify all the roles that are required to complete the project

3.       Assign the tasks to each of the roles what they are upto

4.       Ensure all the task has one accountable and responsible person

5.       Resolve if any role conflicts are there.

6.       Share, discuss and agree on the RACI matrix with the stakeholders before starting any projects.

 

Step	Project initiation	Project execution	project manager	Business analyst	Finance	It/ Software developer
1	Task 1	C	R	C	C	I
2	Task 2	A	I	R	A	C
3	Task 3	A	I	R	A	I
4	Task 4	C	I	R	A	C
5	Task 5	A	A	I	A	C

 

Variations of RACI

RASCI – with S as Support

RSI – Responsible, sponsor and informed

RACIO – with o being omitted / out of scope

RACI – VS with VS being “Verify” and S for “signatory”

 

Which tools I would prefer and Why?

 

Both the tools serve the same purpose of analyzing the stakeholder’s involvement and their level of support in terms of project completion. It is only the name that is different.

1.       RACI involves all the employees from all levels of the company by providing training and involving them in projects. RACI helps the proper six sigma deployment in the company.

2.       The entire six sigma program is governed and resources are allocated by one central authority to sustain the improvement.

3.       RACI brings out the project efficiency and instills process improvement to the company.

 

RACI equivalent to ARMI in terms of :

 

RACI / ARMI	Description	Equivalent to
R - Responsible	Person working on acitivty	M - Member
A - Accountable	Person with decision authority	R - Resource
C - Consulted	Key person to be discussed before taking any decision	A - Approver
I - Informed	informed about the decision	I - Interested party

 

Conclusion:

 

Both the tools are same and the name is just  that different. Both helps us to understand the roles and responsibilities of each member in the company or in the project. Both avoids the role conflicts.

Both helps in define phase as a stakeholder analysis to understand the level of support required in completion of the project.

 

Thanks

Kavitha

[Vastupal Vashisth]

ARMI and RACI both are similar and is used as a project management tool.  For any project to succeed,  communication is must between all concerned people.  Without effective communication,  no project can be completed and there will be no fruitfully results.  Lack of communication leads to failue of any project.  While doing a project for team development,  there is a need of  serious efforts to wars improving communication. Team should have clear statement of the goals and purpose.  If the teams or team members have been selected to represent groups or supply technical knowledge,  these roles and responsibilities should be announced at the I I tial meeting g. Ongoing communication throughout the duration of project is essential.  One powerfully document for facilitating communication is the communication plan.  This plan defines who will deliver,  what will be communicated,  to whom,  how often,  and by what means. This can include status reports,  presentations,  newsletter and etc... In other words communication plan must reflect the needs of audience.  Communication with the team should take place on a regular basis.  All communications with the ream should be open,  honest and with no fear. Communication outside the team should also take place on a regular basis. 

RACI is the effective tool for facilitating communication. RACI stands for responsibility,  accountability,  consultation, and inform. 

Responsibility means individuals who actively participates in any activity. More than one individual at a time may be held responsible for the same. 

 

Accountability means the individual ultimately accountable for results.  Only one individual may be accountable at a time. 

 

Consultation tells that individuals who must be consulted before a decision is made.  Sometimes we call or it appears as a counselor.

 

Informed states that individual who must be informed about a decision because they are affected Ted and interrelated with it.  These individuals do not need to take parts in decisions making process. 

 

[SandhyaKamath]

Let me begin by explaining the terms ARMI & RACI

 ARMI, a project management tool is used to analyze the level of support of project stakeholders. The acronym stands for the four levels of support that can be assigned to the various stakeholders:

·        Approver – Person whose sign-off is required to move ahead in project

·        Resource – Expert whose skills are required for the project

·        Member – Individuals making up the project team

·        Interested party –People who need to be kept up-to-date on the project

The RACI model on the other hand is a tool used for identifying roles and responsibilities and categorizing the level of participation. The acronym RACI stands for:

• Responsible: The person who has responsibility for getting the work done or decision made. For examples the person might be a business analyst, application developer or technical architect.
• Accountable: The person who is accountable for the correct and thorough completion of the task. For example the person may be the project executive or project sponsor.
• Consulted: The people who provide information for the project and with whom there is two-way communication. For Example subject matter experts.
• Informed: The people kept informed of progress and with whom there is one-way communication. They are people who are affected by the outcome of the tasks, so need to be kept up-to-date.

 

I will go with the RACI model as it provides a clear cut delegation of tasks to people involved in the project. Tasks are listed out clearly and people who are involved in the project are also listed out along with their roles and responsibilities at the beginning of the project itself. Each and every process is clearly defined. Tasks are properly divided among different members thus balancing workload appropriately. RACI enables every member to know very clearly what is expected of him/her and helps eliminate misunderstanding, fighting and duplication of effort. It is a good communication tool and helps in taking the right decisions. It enables good Team Bonding as it gives a cross-functional view for people across divisions or departments and enables them to appreciate the support given by each and every team member. The outcome of all this is timely completion of project with quality and within budget.

[Srinivasa Vasu]

ARMI & RACI

 

ARMI IS A PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOL, can be used to analyze the level of support of project Team or stakeholders.

·         Approver – Individual whose sign-off is required to move forward with the project

·         Resource – Expert whose skills are required for the project

·         Member – Those individuals making up the project team

·         Interested party –People who need to be kept up-to-date on the project

 

RACI is more of a responsibility matrix, the matrix which breaks the team or team scope in to

 

·         Responsible – The person who is responsible to take care of the task ( there could be more than one responsible)

·         Accountable – The person who is accountable for its success or failure (only one accountable or one group can be made accountable).

·         Consulted – the one who acts as a guide or SME. ( there could be more than one guide)

·         Informed – the one who is informed about the status of the task

 

I would prefer to use the RACI matrix.

Because.. The RACI matrix seems more sensible compared to ARMI where for a task or a project to be taken care in a good manner the parameters of RACI matrix are very good enough to deal with the task or a project. 

 

For any project or a task, the accountability is a must but in ARMI, the scope for this aspect is not there.

Similarly, responsibility. The responsibility is also a must to make sure that the task is made responsible by a person or persons. This is also a kind of missing in ARMI.

 

My vote for RACI.

[RaghavendraRao]

ARMI is a project management tool which is used to plan support required for project various stakeholders. This includes four level of support, Approver, Resource, Member, Interested party. Approver is one who signs of the project and help move it forward. Resources are those who contribute their skills to the project where as members are those who work for the project and interested party are those who need to know about the project.

RACI is also a model that stands for Responsibility, Accountability, Consultation, and Informed from project stakeholder expectation.

Approver is equivalent to accountable, resource is equivalent to consultation, and interested part is equivalent to inform. But member cannot be said as equivalent to responsible, as responsible by itself indicates the ownership to execute, whereas member do not really brings out that clarity. Also resource though are the ones which bring in skills to the project, but its not clearly highlighted where as Consultation in itself indicates it’s a expert who will support the project by the skill.

So May be RACI which gives clear definition of Roles may be better than ARMI which is little ambiguous.

[mohanpb0]

The RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) is slightly older and can be traced back to the Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) introduced in the early 1970s. A variation, RASCI or RASIC (Responsible, Accountable, Support, Consulted, Informed) is also used in certain organizations. Both RACI and RASCI are popular as a role documentation tool.

 

The ARMI (Approver, Resource Person, Member, Interested Party) is more Six Sigma in origin. It serves as a tool to list and categorize stake holders in a Six Sigma Improvement Project.

 

Have been using only ARMI in Six Sigma projects. This could probably be because, the initial Six Sigma Training included ARMI. This has just continued as a practice.

 

Additionally, having been in organizations where Six Sigma is not necessarily a way of life, there was still a need to have people volunteer or be persuaded to be part of a Six Sigma project team. In such situations, around a decade and a half back, there was a need to make it appear as a privilege for a person’s name to be associated with a Six Sigma Improvement Project. The tool for association needed to be both comprehensive as well as soft. ARMI has this characteristic in that it can boost the ego of people who are empowered as Approvers or recognized as Resource Persons. Even being a Member can appear as a good opportunity, while being an Interested Party can be taken as a demonstration of the person's commitment.

 

The RACI had or still has a certain amount of authority in its intent and sometimes creates unpleasantness and perhaps even dread, when one finds oneself in the “Responsible” or “Accountable” cell or column. This is even more if one has not been consulted before being made responsible or accountable for some project or even activity or task. This brings some stress into people who may be worried about being successful in their responsibilities. While being "Consulted" certainly makes people feel good, Informed sort of sidelines the person and perhaps render the person powerless. Moreover, it is still sometimes difficult to explain the differences between Responsibility and Accountability to some people.

 

For the above not necessarily professional reasons, have preferred ARMI to RACI.

[Atul Dev]

RACI and ARMI both are responsibility assignment matrix for GRPI (goals, roles, processes and interpersonal relationship). In my view RACI is more related to responsibility assignment whereas ARMI is more related to project approval and team formation. These two tools should be used as per requirement.

[Rupinder N]

ARMI provides information on the roles of the key stakeholders and how they may evolve during the course of a project. Whereas, RACI provides role assignment at the level of each task, hence, providing more information and clarity to execute a job well.

 

The three best answers are that of Sumanta Das, Sandhya Kamath and R Rajesh. Sumanta's answer is the chosen best answer because of the sheer detail and how it has been broken out into palatable pieces.