16th January 2024
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.
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.
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:
RATSI stands for:
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!
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.
Often when you see a long list of roles, actually itsit’s just variations of a given role. Keep your list of roles short by:
In the Spark platform, you can use attachments to capture any additional information needed and include comments. This keeps your process map clear and easy to read.
Three things to remember with RATSI
Sound interesting? Get in touch to find out more about how to improve Roles and Responsibilities in your organisation. Spark is the cloud-based process improvement tool that was designed to be used and understood by everyone in your organisation. Remember you can use Spark with any R&R matrix you choose when capturing your process.
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