Accountability and Authority

Back to fundamentals on the project management on this 11/1/11

The RACI matrix is a well known tool to identify the

Responsible
Accountable/Authority
Consulted and
Informed

parties involved in successful completion of a "Task".

Out of these four types of parties, there can be many responsible, many consulted and many informed about it but there should be one and ONLY ONE finally accountable for every given task within a project plan.

Why?
There should be one person in complete authority of a task who is empowered to take decisions during the task execution and makes sure the task in completed with the required quality within the time and within the effort allocated to the task. The person should have the final 'authority' to sign-off the deliverable.

In these days, technical architects are made accountable for tasks without necessary authority assigned.

Influencing people without authority and ability to be accountable for tasks is one of the key (soft) skills of a technical architect.