Proper effective project management requires decisions that focus on both “what” and “who.” After making “what” decisions about deliverables and project timelines, the last step before starting the project is to is to create a linear responsibility chart. Linear responsibility chart is also called a responsibility assignment matrix. It identifies who is responsible for core project activities, actions and decisions.

A linear responsibility chart displays just like a common spreadsheet. It consists of rows for each core project responsibility and columns for the project leader and team members names. There are assigned numeric symbols, which typically range from one to-four. It identifies and link primary, support, review and approval responsibilities to the project leader and individual team members.

Steps to follow when creating a LRC are as follows:

1) Project WBS should be documented in a linear manner on the left-hand side of the matrix.

2) All the resource elements from the corporation should be arranged horizontally across the top of the matrix.

3) Each intersection point on the matrix should be accessed to indicate each resources interest in the respective WBS activities.