PMIS 362: PMIS to Automate the Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)

Regardless of the size, type or location of your capital project, each project management plan (PMP) must include what is known as the Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM). The responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) describes the participation by the various roles involved in completing the different project management processes needed to deliver a project. The project management processes would usually cover those processes needed to manage the project’s scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, communications, risk, procurement, stakeholder, claim, safety and financial requirements.

The organization breakdown structure (OBS) will detail the different entities involved in delivering a project which would usually include the project owner, project management consultant, engineering consultant, contractor(s) among others. For each entity, the organization breakdown structure (OBS) will detail the project team members who have a role in performing the different project management processes.

The project management processes that need to be performed for delivering a project will include the different processes at each stage of project life cycle stages including planning, design, tender, construction and defects liability period. The extent of processes to be managed depends on the organization’s project management maturity level and the level of project governance that need to be enforced on the project’s delivery. Those processes will be usually presented in what is known as the Processes Breakdown Structure (PBS). For example, for schedule management the processes could include the processes for reviewing and approving the baseline schedule, reviewing and approving the revised schedule, reviewing and approving the schedule updates, extension of time (EoT) requests among others.

The responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) will combine those two breakdown structures in one chart for which it will show the roles responsible for performing each process. The RAM will detail the roles for submitting or initiating the specific process (S), reviewing the process (R), those who need to be kept informed process (K) and those who are responsible for approving the process (A). It should be noted that those responsibilities along with the abbreviation can be defined by each organization to best suite their project management plan requirements.

The roles and responsibilities for each project management process captured in the responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) will become the basis for creating the workflow for each process. The workflow will detail the sequence for those steps as well as how the different review and approval actions and decisions the could affect the workflow. The workflow will also capture the approval authorities level assigned to the project team members.

Automating the Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)

A Project Management Information System (PMIS) like PMWeb will have all the forms needed for the different project management processes to be implemented on the project. Many of those forms are either readily available out-of-the-box or can be created using PMWeb custom form builder. To assign the workflow needed for each process, PMWeb will be used to capture the different roles needed to perform those processes as per the organization breakdown structure (OBS) and assign those roles to the project management processes. PMWeb allows adding conditions to further improve the access rights for each role which can limit access rights to the specific fields within each form.

The next step will be to assign the roles to the specific project team members as it is very common that the same resource could play different roles across different projects. PMWeb allows having users in multiple roles as well as allows roles to be used more than once in a workflow in project management processes. In addition, PMWeb allows assigning a document manager as well as other project team members who will receive workflow notifications depending on the selected workflow actions when performed.

PMWeb also allows delegating and replacing project team members who are assigned to a project management process. This is usually needed when the project team member is on leave for vacation or any other purpose as well as the project team member is no more assigned to the project delivery. The delegation will be usually for a specific time period whereas the replacement will be for the remainder of the project duration.

The next step is to create the automated workflow using PMWeb business process module. The visual workflow will allow dragging and dropping the roles needed to perform the selected process in accordance with the desired sequence. For each step, information that relate to the planned duration, actions return or submit, description of the step, whether approval is needed from the multiple reviewers or anyone can approve, who will be notified among others.

For workflow that includes conditions that relate for the process category for example if the RFI was for mechanical, electrical or architectural works, or if the change order value exceeds certain amount or any other condition, PMWeb allows creating those condition rules to be embedded in the workflow process. The conditions which will be specific for each project management process uses the rules of equal than, not equal to, greater than, less than among others. In addition, multiple rules can be added to each form using the and/or option.

PMWeb also comes ready with its own visual workflow designer which allows creating the workflow again by dragging and dropping the process roles of visualizing what has been already created. In addition, PMWeb allows creating escalation alerts for each process workflow by specifying the number of days before emailing and/or displaying the escalation notification.

Performing a Project Management Process

Now all project management processes who have been assigned with a workflow will become ready for automated distribution as per the defined workflow steps. The workflow tab will be used to submit a process as well as track the status of the process with the different actions taken at each step. All completed steps will be colored blue while pending steps will be colored grey. The current step will be colored grey with an orange colored frame.

Email notifications will be sent to project team member who is next on the workflow process. PMWeb allows designing the email notification in any desired format with the option of adding “Green” and “Red” buttons to approve or reject on the process on the fly. In addition, PMWeb allows adding attachments to the workflow notification email which could include the output form of the relevant project management process, a report on pending transactions among others. Those could be of great value when the project team member has no immediate access to the PMWeb platform while reviewing those email notifications.

PMWeb report writer will be used to create reports to monitor and evaluate the workflow performance for the different project management processes needed to manage the project. The layout and format of the workflow report can be designed in any desired format with the option of coloring delayed workflow steps in red if needed.

The data captured for each performed workflow step for each project management process can be also used by management to analyze and review the performance of the different project team members involved in performing these steps. Using a Business Intelligence (BI) software like MS Power BI, the data from each workflow process can be grouped by project team member name to review the maximum, minimum and average duration taken by each project team member to action his/her designated step in a specific project management process. Other business intelligence reports can be also generated to compare the performance of each project management process across each of the projects being managed by the organization.