Roles and Responsibilities in ITSM with a RACI
RACI is a method for defining roles and responsibilities in a project or process. The RACI acronym stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed.
Roles
The Executive Sponsor - is accountable for the framework implementation and responsible for securing spending authority and resources to implement and manage the Services and Processes. The Executive Sponsor is a vocal and visible champion who legitimizes goals and objectives, involved in major activities, is the ultimate decision-maker, has final approval of all scope changes, and signs off on approvals to proceed to each succeeding phase.
Service Domain Owner
The primary responsibility of the Service Domain Owner is to ensure the processes within the Service Domain provide support to the Service Owners, who have accountability for the Services that are provided. The Service Domain Owner is accountable for all the Processes in the Service Domain, the interfaces and Process interdependencies, and for measuring and maintaining Process maturity levels.
The Service Domain Owner ensures proper resourcing, the appointment of Process Owners, and the strategy for each Service Domain. The Service Domain Owners work jointly to ensure proper handoffs between the Service Domains. The Service Domain Owners represent their Service Domain on the upper governance boards while establishing governance boards to handle Domain-specific matters related to policy, standards.
Service Domains are usually aligned with the stages in the Service Lifecycle.
Service Owner
Each Service needs an owner. The Service Owner is accountable for the Service without regard for where the technology, processes, or other enablers reside. In short, the Service Owner owns the end-to-end Service even if he or she relies on other Services to provide the Service. For example, the Business Service supporting Accounting will rely on multiple Infrastructure Services. The Service Owner will be the primary stakeholder in these supporting Services. This owner wants to ensure that these supporting Services enable his or her Service to be successful.
Service Manager
This role is responsible for managing the end-to-end lifecycle of one or more IT Services. The Service Manager:
Provides leadership on the development of the business case and process architecture,
Service deployment and lifecycle management schedules,
Performs Service cost management activities in close partnership with other organizations such as operations, engineering, and finance.
The Service Manager is also responsible for the controls built into the Service, both supporting the processes and corporate controls (e.g., SOX).
Process Owner
As with the Service Owner, the Process Owner is the one individual accountable for the success of the Process. The Process Owner will ensure the Process is being performed as agreed and documented in the Process documentation. This Process Owner is concerned with the overall quality and performance of the Process, especially the measuring of health and performance of the Process.
This is obtained through the definition of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and frequently reviewing the metrics, and acting as necessary. These metrics represent a scale of measuring managed Services, Processes, and activities and are used to identify trends, productivity, resources, and opportunities for improvement.
Process Manager
The Process Manager will manage the day-to-day activities of the Process. In matters that pertain to the Process, the Process Manager is answerable to the Process Owner and performs the day-to-day operational and managerial tasks demanded by the Process activities. While there should be one Process Owner for each process, there may be multiple Process Managers for that same Process. The Process Manager does not necessarily fall within the Process Owner’s organizational chain of command.
Process Analyst
The Process Analyst is responsible for Process execution, supporting Process development, design and implementation, implementing the process, and providing continuous process improvement support.
Using a RACI matrix, the following roles and responsibilities can be defined as:
Service Strategy
- Responsible (R): Service Strategy Manager
- Accountable (A): IT Director
- Consulted (C): Business Analyst, Service Portfolio Manager
- Informed (I): Service Design Manager, Service Transition Manager, Service Operation Manager
Service Design
- Responsible (R): Service Design Manager
- Accountable (A): IT Director
- Consulted (C): Business Analyst, Service Strategy Manager
- Informed (I): Service Transition Manager, Service Operation Manager
Service Transition
- Responsible (R): Service Transition Manager
- Accountable (A): IT Director
- Consulted (C): Business Analyst, Service Design Manager
- Informed (I): Service Strategy Manager, Service Operation Manager
Service Operation
- Responsible (R): Service Operation Manager
- Accountable (A): IT Director
- Consulted (C): Business Analyst, Service Transition Manager
- Informed (I): Service Strategy Manager, Service Design Manager
Continual Service Improvement
- Responsible (R): Continual Service Improvement Manager
- Accountable (A): IT Director
- Consulted (C): Business Analyst, Service Strategy Manager, Service Design Manager, Service Transition Manager, Service Operation Manager
- Informed (I): None
In this RACI matrix, the Responsible role refers to the person or group who performs the activity or task. The Accountable role is responsible for ensuring that the activity or task is completed satisfactorily. The Consulted role provides input and expertise to the activity or task. The Informed role receives information about the activity or task.
It is important to note that the roles and responsibilities defined in this RACI matrix are just an example and can be adjusted based on the specific needs and requirements of an organization.
