A RACI chart or matrix identifies the key roles and responsibilities against major tasks within a project. It serves as a visual of the role each person on a team is playing. Creating the chart is also an excellent exercise in balancing workload and establishing the decision-maker.
RACI is a type of stakeholder analysis just like a Power Interest Grid.
What is RACI?
RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed. Each letter in the acronym represents a level of task responsibility.
Responsible: Doing the Task
This team member does the work to complete the task. Every task needs at have at least one Responsible individual.
Accountable: Owning the Task
This individual delegates work and is the last one to review the task or deliverable before it is marked as complete. Each task should ideally have one Accountable individual.
Consulted: Assisting in the Task
Every task and its deliverable is strengthened by review and consultation by one or more team members. These are the Consulted individuals. They may have the required domain expertise to provide the right level of consulting for the task.
Informed: Keeping Aware
These individuals simply need to be aware of the progress being made rather than directly contributing towards each deliverable.
Advantages of a RACI Chart
- Improved Communication: Once you have a completed RACI chart, you will be aware of the required level of communication that is required with each stakeholder. This ensures you don’t either under-communicate or over-communicate with the stakeholders.
- Identifying Key Stakeholders: Instead of involving everyone in the decision making process, the RACI chart can help you identify the key stakeholders in involve in the delivery process.
- Setting Right Expectations: When you create a RACI at the beginning of a project, it can be useful to help set expectations for who is managing or responsible for work going forward.
Common Pitfalls of a RACI Chart
Don’t treat this as a one-time activity. Most projects ignore the RACI once it has been created, thereby beating the purpose for which it was created.
It can add more complexity to the project, as different stakeholders would be involved at different levels in the project. Ensure it is used appropriately.
RACI Templates & Examples
RACI charts are simple grid-based templates. It can be time consuming to create though!
Here are a few nice templates that you can use:
- Teamgantt’s Excel template. Oh! Don’t forget to evaluate Teamgantt as a Project Management tool.
- Tactical Project Manager’s RACI Template.
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