Use a RAM to make people cooperate

The bane of my existence as a planner is the person who, despite me having explained it a dozen times, comes to me at deadline and asks what they are supposed to do. Or what I want from them.

I've found that using a Responsiblity Assignment Matrix (RAM) is an effective tool for herding just this sort of cat.

A RAM sets out, in a chart, the tasks that will be accomplished, all of the people involved in a process --- and then at the intersection between person and task, defines what that person's role is.

Say, for example, I have a particularly difficult senior manager who rarely reviews and approves draft -- then at the end of a process asks for several dozen changes. A RAM I might submit at the start of the project might have definitions like this:

Planner Send out instructions.
Program Officer Create first draft.
Senior Manager Review & approve draft.

A RAM is really only effective if you use it at the very start of a project, as it defines how people will be involved. That's why it's usually one of the first documents that I introduce to a process - often at the Memorandum of Understanding or Agreement In Principle stage.

With a RAM in place, when we reach deadline and someone hasn't fulfilled their role, I can point to the RAM and say "I thought that we had defined this as your role. Why didn't it work?" More often than not, the person will feel sufficiently chastised to let the project proceed -- and will make sure they understand their role next time I come to them with a RAM.

Read more about the Responsiblity Assignment Matrix, and other Project Managment Tools, in the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge.