If you have a team where the roles are not well defined, you can use a set of matrices to expose the areas which are unclear. Have multiple people fill in the same matrix, and then discuss the differences.

I think that in this situation, you can’t hope for the advertised result immediately: “everyone will know their role and have a clear understanding of what’s expected of them in terms of team communication”; but it still gives you a great starting point.

The Wikipedia-RASIC definition of Accountable didn’t make sense to me. “Accountable to whom?”, was my question. I also see a level above the Accountable role that needed to be included.

Here’s my attempt to translate:

Wikipedia-RASIC defines ‘A’ as the final approving authority (can only be one).

I defined ‘**’ as the final approving authority. I’m not sure of the subtleties of the Wikipedia definition, but I would add that ‘**’ may not be actively involved in the process and can remain hands off; i.e. they have empowered someone (one person).

Wikipedia-RASIC defines ‘R’ as those who do the work to achieve the task.

I defined ‘R’ as the person empowered by ‘**’ (the final approving authority) to get the job done. ‘R’ in turn assigns work to ‘A’s who are Accountable to ‘R’ to get the work done. There is an extra level in my variation. Without that extra level there is no separation between the person actively managing (‘R’) and the person with final approving authority (‘**’).

I like my variation because it translates to natural language nicely. If you’re an ‘R’ for something, that means you’re responsible for getting it done even though your boss likely has the final approving authority. Your boss, the ‘**’, has made you and only you ‘R’esponsible. You will have many people who are ‘A’ccountable to you for getting that work done.

In Wikipedia-RASIC terms this would read: If you’re Accountable for something (to whom?) that means you have final approving authority (you may not). You have no boss, however you will have many people that are ‘R’esponsible for getting the work done.

Considering the number of variations in that article, I wouldn’t say that flipping the R and A is wrong, just that it’s another variation. The best approach is probably just to find what works for you and your team and be clear about the definitions.

I’m only basing this on what I read at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RACI_matrix

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RACI_matrix