2 mins on... DACI
2 mins on... DACI
A simple framework for preparing your teams and managing tech projects successfully.
Yes, it’s totally possible to choose a dud system or pick a delivery partner who can’t deliver what you need. In these cases, projects are doomed to fail from the start.
But these cases are much rarer than most people think.
A much more common reason for project failure is bad planning.
In this piece I’m going to share a simple framework for preparing your teams and managing tech projects successfully. For many, it will be common knowledge and, for most, it will be a welcome reminder of how important the basics are when managing projects.
Introducing the DACI Framework
DACI is a project management framework used to define the roles on a project, and a method for sharing responsibilities across stakeholders in a way they understand.
In the context of a retail tech project, I’ve found it helps non-technical stakeholders - e.g. members of product design and development teams in a PLM project - understand what’s expected of them, how much effort & time they need to plan and what they need to focus on. Which, in turn, leads to more confident and successful project teams.
Similarly, it helps project managers and/or tech dept leaders communicate the dependencies on others within the organisation required to successfully deliver a project. For example, if users from a product development team aren’t actively completing test scenarios in the UAT phase then a PLM project is going to be delayed, and if leadership want the timeline to stay on track they can quickly support by holding these users accountable for the phase.
This is incredibly important when managing expectations and confidence at the most senior level of the organisation, ensuring big projects get the time and support required.
What does DACI stand for?
For those more familiar with RACIs or the like - no surprises, it’s very similar! I have to credit Aran Kapila at HighCohesion for introducing me to the concept years ago and showing us how powerful it can be.
DACI stands for:
D: Driver - Setting the pace, overall coordination, and pushing the project forward
A: Approver - Has the authority to make decisions. Decides if the output is acceptable
C: Consulted - Contributing to the process or output, they have knowledge that will influence the decision
I: Informed - No authority over decisions but needs to be notified of changes and progress due to potential impacts
We use the DACI model at the very start of a project, to apply the required levels of responsibilities to each phase & sub-phase. Due to the complexity of projects like ERP, PLM, BI, Planning Tools etc it’s critical to have layers of responsibility known to all project team members (internal and external) going into a project, so that capacity can be properly planned.
More often than not, brands miss this piece of planning and go into big tech projects without a view on how much it will demand from stakeholders across the business.
The result: Once the project ramps up it doesn’t get the input or effort level required from stakeholders (because these stakeholders are naturally incredibly busy and can’t spare the time, due to other legitimate priorities) and progress stalls.
How to structure a DACI?
Start by establishing, in detail, the phases and sub-phases involved in the project. Here is where experience really helps, so if this is your first rodeo (e.g. you’re planning a PLM implementation but haven’t done one before) then you should consider working with specialists (like Commerce Thinking) and/or lean heavily on third party implementors or vendors.
The phases and sub-phases will vary significantly from project to project, but I’ve included an example of a couple of phases of a recent PLM project to bring the concept to life:
Next, establish who is involved in the project across (at least) the following three levels:
Steerco - A steering committee is a group of high-level stakeholders and experts who guide key project initiatives. In a tech project, they’re usually the group who hold project leaders accountable to budgets & deadlines, and support by ensuring projects remain a priority amongst wider business stakeholders.
Project Team - The group of people responsible for executing the tasks and producing the deliverables outlined in the project plan and schedule. In a tech project, they’re normally a combination of internal and third party resources heavily involved from design to go-live.
Stakeholders - A stakeholder is anyone with an interest or involvement in the project. In a tech project, this group typically includes the eventual end users of the tool(s) being implemented and the stakeholders closest to processes subject to optimisation / change.
In most tech projects, you have to specify these groups cross-functionally with the senior leadership team. So get the group together and be sure to really push fellow department leaders to think carefully about who they expect to involve from there teams.
And remember, for many of these leaders they’re looking to you to explain what’s involved in the project so they can pair you with the best people on their team, so go into these conversations prepared.
Where to manage the DACI?
We’ve seen DACI’s managed successfully in Notion, Whimsical, Airtable, Excel and others. The tool isn’t really that important, it’s all about the discipline.
The DACI should live as close to central project resources like the critical path, project plan, RAID etc. So create it wherever your teams live day to day, and link out to it with pinned or bookmarked links from platforms like Slack, Teams or WhatsApp.
If you’re a project leader save it to your favourites wherever you work, and make it visible to project teams!
Templates and examples
Remember, more tech budget is wasted due to bad change management than from selecting the wrong systems or partners. So be sure to get your ship in order before pressing ahead with big investments of time and money.
Use the DACI framework to force everyone who needs to be involved to engage with what’s expected of them. I hope it helps.
If this has piqued your curiosity and you’re interested in exploring Commerce Thinking’s DACI frameworks for major tech projects like ERP, PLM + more then drop me an email at luke@commercethinking.com.