Responsibility
Who decides, who works, who is consulted
An organisation says where someone sits. It does not say what they contribute to a matter. That is exactly where queries fail: ten names hang on one area, and nobody knows who to ask.
TAOM uses the four roles everyone knows from the RACI matrix – not as a table beside the model, but on the person themselves, inside it.
Carries the decision. For a given decision object or work result there should be exactly one accountable – if ten people get the same question, nobody answers.
Does the work. Often several people, often from outside – consultancy or freelance.
Must be involved before the decision – may object and advise. The decision stays with the accountable. Which role applies where depends on the object: a Global Process Owner may be consulted on a stream decision and be accountable on a global template decision.
Is told, does not take part in the decision. An information role therefore cannot be confirmed – only objected to.
Internal or external – the second axis
The role says what kind of involvement there is. It does not say which company someone comes from. Only both together answer the question nobody else asks: What happens when the contract ends?
What comes of it
| Question | Answer from the model |
|---|---|
| Who receives a query from Jira or Confluence? | The person holding A – not whoever happens to open the editor next. |
| Who has to approve? | Whoever is accountable approves. Whoever is consulted must be involved before the decision – consulted does not mean entitled to approve. Whoever is responsible confirms execution and does not thereby take on the decision. |
| Who signs off the tests? | Key users, process experts and test management are marked as verifying in the role catalogue – test responsibility does not have to be maintained a second time. |
| Who was responsible six months ago? | The record stays in the model: who, when, replaced by whom. In regulated environments that is exactly the auditor’s question. |