List the decisions, not the tasks
Focus on the recurring decisions the team keeps making: what to prioritize, which architecture to pick, when to escalate. Tasks flow from decisions; get decisions right first.
Assign the four roles
- Responsible — does the work of framing and recommending
- Accountable — the single person who owns the outcome (only one)
- Consulted — must be asked before the decision lands
- Informed — must be told after
Sanity checks
Every row has exactly one A. No row has 'everyone' as C. If everyone is consulted, nothing gets decided in under a week.
Common pitfalls
- — Two Accountables. That means no accountable.
- — Using it as a weapon. It's a shared artifact, not a gotcha.
- — Not sharing widely. If it lives in your head, it didn't change anything.