Directly Responsible Individual

Written By Dima Malenko

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Dima brings up the concept of Directly Responsible Individual (DRI) and he and Slava debate how it differs from RACI, when each approach shines, and what it would take to actually adopt DRI culture on a growing team.

  • One problem with side projects that executives start: even a fixed time commitment may not be sufficient to effectively drive them
  • Directly Responsible Individual (DRI) — one person with end-to-end accountability and decision-making authority for a project or outcome
  • RACI — Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed
  • DRI vs RACI: DRI assigns single end-to-end ownership focused on outcomes; RACI assigns responsibility at the task or stage level
  • Dima is not a huge fan of how DRI is portrayed in The GitLab Handbook
  • Slava: are DRI and RACI really that different?
  • Switching to DRI: shift accountability to outcomes, not actions — empower the DRI to determine how to get there
  • Results chain was discussed in Biweeklycast #52: Needs Analysis
  • Consent-based (vs consensus-based) committees as an alternative path to fast decisions
  • The party planning thought experiment: three DRIs, one shared budget — a case where the model strains

"There are so many ways to make people irresponsible." — Slava

Dima Malenko
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