A Quick Explanation of RAPIDs

As FST Phase 3 continues, we’ll all be hearing about RAPIDs
more often as key project decisions get made.

RAPID is an acronym for a decision-making structure. The
goal for using such a structure is to have an organized approach to identify
the decision-maker for important decisions and define the roles of others
contributing to the process.

Here’s what the acronym RAPID stands for:

• Recommend:
  To kick off the process, someone recommends that a decision be made. This person
  or group will identify options to share with others involved in the process and
  do the appropriate research, seeking input (the I), to contribute to an
  informed decision.


• Agree: After
  a recommendation made, a person or people must agree to proceed with the
  process. If they disagree, more input may be required to revise the
  recommendation or the process may be discontinued.


• Perform: After
  a decision is made, a group of people implement it. This group often includes some
  of those who provided input earlier in the process.


• Input: Important
  stakeholders contribute to the process by providing input. Their feedback may
  be solicited at one or more points in the process.


• Decide: A
  person (or people) ultimately make the decision.

Don’t let the organization in the acronym confuse you. In
practice, it’s more like RIDAP, but that’s not as catchy and sounds like a
confused frog instead of a decision structure.

 

The process can be more
iterative than that as well. For example, people may provide input to inform
what is recommended and then again after agreement, giving feedback about the
options moving forward.

It’s common in RAPID lingo to refer to participants in the
process with their letters. For example, you may hear something like, “She’s an
A,” or “He’s an I.”

Large-scale decisions that affect a lot of people or
resources, for example, need a RAPID. Though encouraged for all, not every decision requires a RAPID. Other smaller-scope decisions can be made effectively without it. The project team has developed a specific decision-making framework to assign decisions to tiers based on their scope and impact. Which tier a decision falls into then determines if a RAPID is required or optional. The FST decision-making framework will be shared soon.

As FST decisions are made using RAPID decision-making, the
documentation about the decisions will be shared on the FST website to enable
everyone in the University community to see what has been decided and who has
been involved in the process. More info about that repository soon, too!