What is RATSI?

16th January 2024

by Colin Claverie

Looking for a new way to describe roles and responsibilities (R&R)? It is one of the core benefits of process mapping and the most common approach is often RACI analysis. However, at Netcall, we recommend a clearer approach: RATSI.  We’ll take a look at how RATSI works and why we think it is so much better as an alternative. Plus why not download our guide to getting started with using RATSI and discover more for yourself.

Identifying responsibilities – why is it important?

Firstly, let’s look at the reasons why you need to identify responsibilities when looking at process improvement.

You will always need to know who will be involved in a piece of work and what is expected from them. This is about role clarity and setting the right expectations for every member of the team. Capturing roles and responsibilities allows a process to remain high level while still gathering all the elements involved.

The problem with RACI

RACI has been the most popular notation for R&R analysis for some time but we find it falls short of being as clear as it should be.

RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. The problem is that in reality everyone has their own definition and understanding of what each of these terms means. If you’ve had experience of using RACI – you may have even argued with colleagues over the difference between Responsible and Accountable.

It is also true that in many languages “Accountability” translates literally to “Responsibility”. In the world of global business this lack of clarity can lead to a lot of mistakes or confusion. In comparison RATSI does not use this concept of “Accountability” at all.

Instead it uses:

• Authority over the work (but is not involved) and decision maker
• Responsibility for ensuring that the work is done.

What is RATSI?

RATSI stands for:

• Authority – “owns” the activity or the decision to be made. Clearly not involved in the day to day work.
• Responsible – for ensuring the activity is done (not necessarily doing the work but ensuring it is completed to an agreed standard).
• Task – actually does the work as described.
• Support – provides inputs in exceptional situations / edge cases (otherwise it would be Task).
• Informed – is informed the activity will happen / has been done (successfully or not!).

It is important to recognise that you can have more than one term assigned to you. In fact: someone could have Authority, Responsibility AND Task on a given activity!

RATSI – understanding how to use the matrix

Often people have questions over how to apply RATSI to their processes. Here are the answers to some of the common questions we see.

Can I have multiple Authorities or Responsible for a given task?

You should aim for one unique Authority / Responsible per task. However, if they don’t contradict each other you may have several on one activity. For example if you are considering different business units who may have a stake in decision making.

When do I use Support vs Task?

Try to consider if the person is involved in every occurrence of the process. If so then it should be Task. If you have any doubts then this is itself is often a good enough reason to “upgrade” it to a Task – remember you can always change it later.

How many roles in total?

Finding the balance between a comprehensive list of roles and a process that is easy to read is challenging. It comes down to your personal preference.