Pod RACI
This matrix defines one accountable owner for each gate or ceremony. Replace the roles with named people during pod setup.
Legend: A = accountable, R = responsible, C = consulted, I = informed.
| Gate or ceremony | Accountable | Responsible | Consulted | Informed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Readiness, Forge adjacent | Head of AI-DLC | Executive sponsor | Evaluation engineer, Workbench, outcome counterparty | Spec owner, engineers, design, delivery lead, research |
| Intake to specs | Spec owner | None | Workbench, delivery lead, outcome counterparty | Evaluation engineer, engineers, design, executive sponsor, head of AI-DLC, research |
| Define: product spec | Spec owner | None | Evaluation engineer, engineers, design, outcome counterparty, research | Workbench, delivery lead, executive sponsor, head of AI-DLC |
| Define: technical spec | Engineers | None | Spec owner, evaluation engineer, Workbench, research | Design, delivery lead, outcome counterparty, executive sponsor, head of AI-DLC |
| Define: design spec, when UI applies | Design | None | Spec owner, evaluation engineer, Workbench, research | Engineers, delivery lead, outcome counterparty, executive sponsor, head of AI-DLC |
| Evaluation design | Evaluation engineer | None | Spec owner, design, outcome counterparty, research | Engineers, Workbench, delivery lead, executive sponsor, head of AI-DLC |
| Plan and verify | Workbench | Engineers | Spec owner, evaluation engineer, delivery lead | Design, outcome counterparty, executive sponsor, head of AI-DLC, research |
| Execute | Workbench | Engineers | Evaluation engineer, design | Spec owner, delivery lead, outcome counterparty, executive sponsor, head of AI-DLC, research |
| Judge: Outcome Review | Outcome counterparty | Spec owner, evaluation engineer, engineers, design | Workbench | Delivery lead, executive sponsor, head of AI-DLC, research |
| Release | Engineers | Workbench | Spec owner, evaluation engineer, outcome counterparty | Design, delivery lead, executive sponsor, head of AI-DLC, research |
| Learn | Research | Workbench | Spec owner, evaluation engineer, engineers, design | Delivery lead, outcome counterparty, executive sponsor, head of AI-DLC |
| Report and steer | Delivery lead | None | Spec owner, Workbench, outcome counterparty, executive sponsor, head of AI-DLC | Evaluation engineer, engineers, design, research |
Decision rights
Section titled “Decision rights”- Intake and the product spec belong to the spec owner.
- The technical spec and release boundary belong to engineering.
- The design spec belongs to design when a UI surface exists.
- Evaluation design belongs to the evaluation lead.
- Plan and Execute belong to Workbench, with engineers responsible for the work.
- The client outcome counterparty owns the Judge decision.
- Research owns promotion of learning, but cannot grade pod work it contributed to.
- The delivery lead owns reporting and steering, with no Judge signature.
- The head of AI-DLC owns readiness refusal authority.
Apply the matrix
Section titled “Apply the matrix”- Name one person for every A before the gate begins.
- Record the named people in the operating-ecosystem register.
- Mark the design-spec row not applicable for headless work and state why.
- Check that no author ratifies the spec or claim they produced.
- Record concentration risk when one person carries multiple hats.
- Add ecosystem-specific ceremonies as separate rows without moving the core accountabilities.
- Revisit the matrix when staffing, scope or application boundaries change.
Start with Set up an AI-DLC delivery pod and use Ceremonies and systems of record to run the loop.