People love to know what is their "butt on the line for".  This is where a RAM comes into play. For key project deliverables, always document in a clear manner, who is responsible and what level of responsibility.

Projects, roles, responsibilities and assignments must be clearly communicated and understood by all team members as early as possible in the project life cycle (document and also present openly when possible).  A common tool to help with this is the Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM). The RAM is generally developed within a spreadsheet format (e.g. excel) and defines roles and respective responsibilities associated with key deliverables or tangible outcomes. 

Please see video for additional comments:



 An example is illustrated below:
  
Activity/Deliverable
PM
Sponsor
Engineer
Trainer
Charter
S
A
S
P
Gap Analysis
A
S
R
P
Draft Design
S
S
A
I
Scope Statement
S
A
R
P




Be sure to have a clear definition of each parameter, don't be afraid to customize them slightly to align with your project culture:
P – participant (has the option to participate or not)
A – accountable (one person that is ultimately accountable, owns the task)
R – reviewer (actively involved in the work and required to contribute)
I – informed (only receives high level updates to stay informed)
S – sign-off (signs off, second level of ownership behind accountable)


Variations of different RAMs are generally due to the parameters used within the matrix (example above uses PARIS).  Another example often used includes:  RACI (responsible, accountable, consented, informed).