That CSF is clarity around the roles and responsibilities for each project participant and key stakeholder. No matter how detailed and complete a project plan may be for any project, confusion or omission of participant roles and responsibilities will cause major problems.

This is the first assessment I conduct when addressing a project rescue. In almost 100 percent of these rescue efforts, I have found that there is no shared understanding of participant roles and responsibilities, nor is there explicit documentation to support it. Establishing such a consensus almost always gets a stuck project moving again, and enables the key stakeholders to readily deal with the other issues that require resolution.

The simplest and most effective approach I've seen and used to define and document project roles and responsibilities is the RACI model. Integrating the RACI model into an organization's Project Life Cycle (PLC) creates a powerful synergy that enhances and improves project outcomes.

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