The DACI method: a tool for collective decision-making

Teamwork generally involves making decisions together to move the project in the right direction. As we have seen, making decisions together has many advantages: it makes it possible in particular to involve your employees, to study different points of view and to ensure that the decisions taken are accepted by the entire team.

However, collective decision-making is not always easy and often requires a framework to be more effective. To help you, there is a technique that allows you to make the best decisions in a group: it is the DACI method.

What is the DACI method?

This technique was allegedly developed in the 1980s by Intuit, an American management and accounting solutions company. The DACI method would be a variant of RACI method, a matrix that allows you to visualize who does what in a project.

DACI is an acronym that corresponds to the different roles that team members must play in order to facilitate decision-making.

• D for Driver(the pilot or the driver): this is usually the project manager. Her role is to ensure that the decision is made and that the project is completed on time. He coordinates the team, assigns tasks, organizes and leads meetings, and tracks the progress of the team and the project.
• A for Approver (the person who approves): As the name suggests, this is the person who makes the final decision on all aspects of the project. This may be the business manager, a manager, a department manager, etc. There may be several approvers, but to ensure the speed and effectiveness of the method, the fewer the better.
• C is for Contributors (contributors): experts in their field, contributors are members of the company who are generally consulted to obtain their opinion, expertise or point of view on a specific problem, and thus help the team make a decision. It is the driver who calls on them, either by inviting them to meetings or by consulting them separately.
• I for Informed (the people to be informed): these people are not necessarily involved in the project and do not participate in decision-making, but their work will be impacted by the decision taken (like other company departments, stakeholders, etc.). Therefore, it is important that they be kept informed so that they can more easily accept the decision.

The DACI method is mainly used for complex decision-making, involving a large number of employees and stakeholders, and/or which have a significant impact on the customer.

This technique helps the team make decisions effectively because it allows each team member to have a clear vision of their role, responsibilities, and what is expected of them. Note that the same person can have multiple roles. This is the case of the project manager who can be both the driver and the approver, or the driver and a contributor.

How does it work?

Here is how to implement the DACI method within your project team.

1. Divide the project into tasks

Start by breaking the project down into tasks. The objective of this stage is to know the different actions that the team will have to perform to complete the project as well as the expected results of each task. There's no need to worry about resources and deadlines during this phase.

2. Assign roles

Designate a driver for each task to ensure that all decisions critical to the success of the project are made.

Also, name one approver per task to validate each decision. Then, define the collaborators with the necessary expertise to help make decisions on the various tasks (the contributors). The number of contributors is not limited. The main thing is that they have enough expertise on the subject to be able to help you.

The driver can add or remove contributors as the project progresses according to needs.

Finally, determine who should be informed of the decisions made and the results of each task. To do this, ask yourself which employees and departments will be more or less affected by each decision.

Write down all the tasks and the different roles in a document that you will communicate to the whole team.

3. Develop the decision-making process

The criteria for decision-making are defined according to the desired result. It is the role of the approver to determine the elements he needs to validate a decision and to communicate them to the driver (for example, the deadline, the context, other possible options, recommendations and expert opinions, etc.).

Then, it is up to the driver to collect this information from the contributors, then send it to the approver so that the latter can make the decision.

Finally, the driver must communicate the decision taken to the persons concerned (informed) using the means previously defined in a communication plan.

4. Use appropriate tools

To monitor the progress of each task, and more generally of your project as well as to know all the decisions taken in real time, it is essential to use appropriate tools. You can opt for project management software such as Wimi which makes it easy to organize teamwork and the follow-up of your projects.

Conclusion

Collective decision-making can be time consuming if it is not properly framed. The DACI method provides a structure to allow teams to make important and/or complex decisions (no need to apply it to small decisions) more quickly and effectively.

Note that for this technique to work, it is essential that everyone's roles and responsibilities are clearly defined from the start.