Q 387. Explain RAPID and DACI matrices while comparing and contrasting them with RACI matrix.

 

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RAPID Matrix is a tool to help in defining what during a project and emphasizes on the decision making roles. This tool helps in avoiding the ambiguity on who is responsible / accountable for in a particular project / endeavor.

Who developed the RAPID Matrix and why ?

This matrix was created by world renowned consultancy firm Bane Consulting to fasten te decision making process. Bane Consulting developed this matrix to accelerate the decision making as firm believed strongly that Performance and High Quality decision making goes hand in hand. In other words it may be said that high performance is strongly related to Quality of Decision Making (Fast / Accurate / Relevant / Long Term Vision etc.). Its depicted Mathematically as below:

High Performance (PH) = f (High Quality Decision Making (QD))

RAPID Matrix assigns the key owner for each role and when the roles are clearly defined and delineated, the team / organizations / individuals are able to make decisions more accurately and swiftly. RAPID requires a lot of practice and discipline. Not every decision requires the level of effort and investment that goes into creating the RAPID roles. Successful adopters begin with the decisions that they rely on to run their businesses day to day. And, of course, to be effective, RAPID needs support throughout the organization: among its leaders, in its culture and as recognized part of its daily processes.

RAPID® is a registered trademark of Bain and is widely used worldwide for decision making and fast tracking the same in any complex organization.

What RAPID stands for?

R – Recommend – Who should be recommending an action?

A – Agree – Who all should agree before it can be moved forward?

P – Perform – Who will be performing the actions required for implementation?

I – Input – Whose inputs are required to check the feasibility?

D – Decide -Who decides to bring decision to closure and channelizes the decision to implement?

 

RAPID Matrix Diagram:

 

Let’s see RAPID Matrix Implementation in Six Sigma / Process Improvement World:

 

 

Let’s now understand what DACI Matrix is.

 

DACI decision-making framework designed to improve a team’s effectiveness and velocity of the projects, by assigning the involved team member’s specific roles and responsibilities when it comes to group decisions.

 

 

What DACI stands for ?

 

D - Driver (the person who drives the decision)

A - Approver (the person who makes the decision)

C - Contributors (the people or teams whose knowledge helps in the project)

I - Informed (the people which may be affected by decisions and therefore needs to be kept in loop or informed on the process changes etc. ).

 

Who developed the DACI Matrix and why?

 

DACI matrix was developed by Intuit and is considered to be a variant of the RACI Matrix.

 

Application of DACI in Website Launch Process:

 

 

Let’s see what can be DACI Matrix for Running Six Sigma Projects in an Organization:

 

D - Driver – Project Lead / Process Expert (Who is doing the Six Sigma Project / guiding the project)

A - Approver – Decision Maker (Process Owner / Sponsor can be Approvers)

C - Contributor – Advisor (Project Mentor / Champion can be a Contributor)

I - Informed (Team Members / Team Leaders / SMEs /etc. that will be affected by the process change post the project completion)

 

DACI tool is very useful in making the fast / cross functional decisions and are usually used effectively in a complex hierarchy organization.

 

What RACI Matrix is?

 

RACI Matrix is a responsibility grid that maps every task or milestone or any key decision involved in completing a particular project and it assigns the roles those are Responsible / Accountable / Consulted / Informed during a project.

 

R – Responsible (Person who is primarily responsible for doing the action)

A – Accountable (Person who is accountable for outcome for action done by Responsible Person)

C – Consulted (Subject Matter Expertise whose inputs can be taken / consulted during a project)

I – Informed (Persons / teams who needs to be informed about the progress of the project / outcome)

 

Lets understand the RACI Matrix for Six Sigma Framework Deployment Again:

 

 

RACI Matrix Example for a Sales Strategy Formulation and Deployment:

 

 

Lets now understand the Difference between RAPID / DACI / RACI by below table :

 

 

So if we see overall, RAPID / DACI frameworks are focused upon strategic decision making and accelerating the decision making process, however RACI is more towards task oriented and pushing these tasks / milestones planned for completion within stipulated timelines.

 

 

During Process Establishment and Execution, It is always challenging to finalizing who is responsible for the execution of the task and decision finalization. It leads to confusion in Execution of the project and meeting the deadline. This also create challenging to the organization for resource level allocation for the overload and underload resources.

 

To resolve this problem , It in important to finalize the scope and responsibilities of the task by doing the responsibility delegation at every level of the organization. This ensure the responsibility is clearly visible and the task execution will be easy and in timeline.

 

There are different methods of executing these matrix for delegation. RAPID and DACI is one of the common method to do the same.

 

R :Recommend

A : Agree

P : Perform

I  : Input

D:  Decide  

 

 

RAPID Matrix is one of the matrix used for problem solving and responsibility delegation. In RAPID Matrix the roles are performed in sequence as Recommend ,  Agree , Perform , Input and Decide. The person with role of recommend a action plan with fact and data. This is first step pf the Process.

 

In case of Agree ,there are numbers of people who must agree on the recommendations. These is a group of People who agree on the action before moving to Input , which is most critical steps. In Input Role the hard facts are presented for recommendation.

 

In Next step of Decide , This is a one person role who will take final decision. This is mostly Leadership position. The last role is to Perform the task after the decision.

 

In comparison with RACI (Responsible , Accountable , Consulted and Informed). It is most popular approach. RACI And RAPID has different areas to use , RACI is a responsibility matrix while RAPID is decision making Process. In Case of small /trival issue not recommended to gor for RAPID. It support the big decision making process. One of the most benefits in RAPID is to help people not to work in SILO.

 

 

 

In DACI Matrix The roles are divided in four stages

 

D : Driver

A : Approver

C : Contributor

I : Informed

 

Driver : The Person who drive the team for the decision. They need to ensure that all stake holders are on the same platform for the decision.

Approver : This is a person who approve the decision or actions.

Contributors : These are the People who contribute for the final decision making who has knowledge for the same

Informed : These are the role which are effected by the decision but not part of decision making process.

 

 

As compare to RACI matrix , In Case of DACI Driver is very important. As Driver has all responsibility to drive the decision making process. As if in the process some one hold each decision and drive it to the end. It gives great results. One of the major benefit of this matrix is great in clearing the confusion of decision making. This major difference in Drive is important factor as compare to responsible. As there might be lot of responsible person but there will be single driver.

All three RAPID, DACI and RACI matrices are usually used in Project Management to clearly define the roles played by each individual involved in that project.

Many a time projects lose track because everyone’s left baffled as to who is responsible for what. To avoid those circumstances we use DACI, RACI, RAPID and other variations of such matrices depending on our needs and requirements.

Let’s start by understanding each one of them individually –

DACI

The four roles in DACI are –

D = Driver

A = Approver

C = Contributor

I = Informed

Driver – Driver as the name suggests is the one who is responsible for driving the project. Their primary role is to lead the project from beginning to end.

Major responsibilities of the Driver are –

1.       Create the project plan and scope

2.       Define the communication plan and share regular updates

3.       Set-up meeting and regular check-ins

4.       Communicating and bridging the gap between various executors, taking their advice and getting necessary approvals.

Approver – Approvers are generally from the top management who are the sponsors of the project. Country Head/CEO/CFO/President etc.

Contributors – Every project requires Subject Matter Experts and contributors are these SMEs who are often consulted at various stages of a project.

Informed – They are the ones who are informed on the final decisions taken but they have no say in amending those decisions.

 

 

 

RAPID

RAPID was created by Bain & Company, in order to have clear understanding of who is responsible to take what kind of decisions and who is responsible for executing those.

Often times there are a lot of internal conflicts in an organization as to –

 Who owns the process?

Who has the authority to make decisions?

Who is an authoritative position to have the final say?

In order to make decision making transparent and structured RAPID was developed.

R = Recommendation

A = Agreement

P = Perform

I = Input

D = Decisions

Therefore RAPID clearly identifies and distinguishes between those who are responsible for Making Recommendations from those who are responsible to Establish Agreement, Perform Tasks, Provide Necessary Inputs and Make Centralized Decisions and enforce them.

RACI

RACI is very similar to DACI but quite different from RAPID.

DACI and RACI are task oriented whereas RAPID clearly defines the decision making roles.

R = Responsible

A = Accountable

C = Consulted

I = Informed

In RACI matrix last two overlap with DACI, whereas ‘R’ here states who is responsible to implement the task, the performers and the executors and ‘A’ states who is Accountable and Answerable to the leaders in case they question those tasks.

 

Summary - There is no one suitable matrix for all, depending on the type of organization and the type of project select the best fit in that scenario or try a combination of these. 

  

 

Prior to comparing RAPID and DACI matrices with RACI matrix, let us briefly understand what an RACI matrix is. RACI is a short form for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. It is a tool quiet extensively used in project management to define individuals’ roles and responsibilities in the execution of projects while removing ambiguities and provides clarity to all stakeholders. This topic is discussed in detail in the “benchmark six sigma forum” and can be accessed using this link.

 

What is RAPID matrix?

RAPID is short for Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input and Decide. It is yet another tool used in project management. While RACI matrix is used to define high level roles and responsibilities, RAPID matrix is used to define more lower-level project planning and decision-making responsibilities.

RAPID matrix example

 

What is DACI matrix?

A DACI matrix, expanded as Driver, Approver, Contributor and Informed is also a tool used in project management to define / identify key roles and responsibilities for making group decisions for every major task within a project.

DACI matrix example

Comparison between RACI, RAPID and DACI matrices:

Matrix	RACI	RAPID	DACI
Expanded as	Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed	Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, Decide	Driver, Approver, Contributor, Informer
Year	1970	After 1980	1980
Founders	Kristoffer Grude, Tor Haug and Erling Andersen	Bain & Company	Intuit
Application	Tool used to clarify & define roles & responsibilities to people within a project / team.	Tool used to agree and assign decision making roles and accountabilities.	A variant of RACI used to assign roles to personnel who drive projects to conclusion.
Merits	þ  Well known and used throughout organizations þ  Once you assign the ‘A’ person, leave it to the team to make it work þ  Preferred by 3rd party companies (e.g. consulting companies) as it has a specific person (A role) to deal with	þ  Enforce a recommendation or a decision, which is typically the blocker þ  Role allocation is clear to manage the activities from beginning to end (entire lifecycle) þ  Preferred by teams that want to get things done	þ  Eliminates ambiguities by giving full authority over definite aspects of decision making to a specific person þ  Representing every aspect of decision-making with a specific role þ  Removes collective responsibility and corrects team imbalance by giving authority to a single person / role þ  Eliminate probable disagreements and speeds up decision-making
Demerits	ý  Everything is dependent on ‘A’ role ý  No strong focus on teamwork ý  Confusion may arise between Consult / Inform roles & Responsible / Accountable roles	ý  May lead to shortcut and not well-thought through options ý  Not easy to implement as everything is not just link to one person ý  Trademark limits use due to legal concerns	ý  Model only works if the rest of the team members are prepared to accept the decision made by the approver

 

Comparison	RAPID	DACI	RACI
Stands For	Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, Decide	Driver, Approver, Contributor, Informed	Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed
Descriptions	Recommend - Recommends a course of action Agree - who must agree with a recommendation Perform - who will perform the decision Input – who provides data to recommend Decide – who is a decision maker	Driver – who drives the decision Approver - who makes the decision Contributor – who aids their skill and expertise in the project Informed – who might be affected by the decision hence need to be kept informed	Responsible – Who does the work Accountable – Who owns success/failure of project’s outcome i.e answerable Consulted – Who can offer expertise guidance for the team Informed - who need to be kept informed, i.e CC
When it is used?	Used to defines/recommends who should be doing what during a project	Used to define the roles of a team in decision making in a Project	Used to define the roles and responsibilities of an individual team members against each task in a Project/Process
How it works?	Focuses on assigning level of decision making	Focuses on decision making	Task Oriented and Focused on deliverables
Where it is used?	Larger projects which require difficult or complex decisions	Larger Projects which require Strategic decisions	Project Management and Lean method

Best answer has been provided by Vinod Jeba Azir for the comprehensive comparison. The other published answers are also great and must read.