RACI Charts The Ultimate Guide, with Examples 2023

Copy and paste that cell to apply the drop-down list to other cells in your RACI matrix worksheet. Let’s take a closer look at how you might put the RACI model to practical use on a project.

This is where Responsible Accountable Consulted Informed framework kicks in. If we define a list of activities and a list of people (or departments), the RACI tells us which role each person will have in each activity. There are no elements of Agile projects that are incompatible with RACI charts — in fact, using a RACI chart is a great way to introduce Agile methods to teams that aren’t used to them. Once you’ve determined your tasks and who will be working on them, it’s just a matter of assigning the right responsibility in the right place.

The 6 fundamental rules for creating a RACI accountability matrix

Now that you know what a RACI matrix is, and why it’s so beneficial to businesses, it’s time to learn how to create one of your own. Finally, because the Informed category is given equal weight, the RACI Matrix encourages communication between roles. Communication is the key to clearly understanding expectations, which results in a smooth project. These RACI templates from Clickup have enough variety to fit any of https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ your project needs, but are simple enough for even beginner PMs to use. We really like this simple RACI chart that Adrian Neumeyer, founder and CEO of website Tactical Project Manager, created for a fictitious construction project. To take our example again, it’s possible the executive sponsor wants to be the person who meets with the clients to get their approval, hence they would be responsible for this task.

This means people will know what they have to do and who to reach out to with questions on other aspects of the project. Regardless of which template you select, using one will eliminate a lot of basic work in constructing the chart and will free your time to define roles and tasks. Notice also how a RACI chart encourages strong communication between team members with the Informed and Consulted roles. In the hectic environment that most businesses operate in, this communication will oftentimes be neglected without a tool like RACI. Our advisors can help you find the perfect project management tool for your team. In just a few minutes, one of our advisors will help you build and narrow down a list of options that meet your needs, all for free.

Informed

There’s no micromanaging or constant checking in, as each individual’s roles are clearly outlined in the RACI matrix. While there may be a few Responsible team members, there can only be one Accountable person assigned to a task or deliverable. The Accountable person is usually the key stakeholder and has the ultimate deciding vote when it comes to approvals and moving forward with a task and project. This could be a project manager, someone like a creative director, or the individual who requested completion of the project initially. Informed persons are those that need to stay in the loop of communication throughout the project. These individuals do not have to be consulted or be a part of the decision-making, but they should be made aware of all project updates.

Informed folks need to be looped into the progress of a project but not consulted or overwhelmed with the details of every task. They need to know what’s going on because it could affect their work, but they’re not decision makers in the process. Responsible parties are typically on the project team and are usually developers or other creators. Lead and lag are project management terms that describe the potential advance or delay of activities within a… Therefore, when it comes to a process with these characteristics, one can create a new category of responsibility, define a letter for it and indicate it in the table.

Research-backed tips for effective stakeholder engagement

Just be sure you have a clear plan in place to guide your team and project. You might work with a team who just happens to communicate really well and stays on top of their own work. (Lucky you!) Or maybe your project is small enough that it would be silly to take the time to go through this exercise. But it’s especially helpful when tasks require multiple resources, run concurrently, or depend on other tasks. See how TeamGantt helps teams like yours meet deadlines, streamline communication, and keep stakeholders updated and happy. That’s why we rely on team members with the project management skills necessary to reign in the disparate pieces of a project and focus directly on keeping them organized as a project progresses.

They are extremely helpful as they create a highly efficient mechanism for task distribution while significantly coming very close to eliminating any ambiguity within the project hierarchy of tasks. Lastly, there will be projects where an individual task does not need an ‘S’, ‘C’ or an ‘I’. Having gaps in your matrix raci document meaning is not an issue in the case and is quite normal. Offers an extra participation type “O” which often means “Omitted” or “Out of the Loop”. It just allows explicit mentioning of the roles excluded from the scope of a certain task. This helps in clarifying the engaged and unengaged resources in a task/project.

The RACI Matrix

In the case of someone involved outside of the company, one must act in the same way. Each of these words refers to the duties and responsibilities that an employee has in the tasks of a process. Can you identify exactly who’s doing what by when for each task, milestone, and deliverable in your project? Let’s take a closer look at what RACI stands for and the significance of each of those categories in the responsibility assignment matrix. Interfacing’s integrated management system is a one-stop-shop for managing transformation programs.

• There are no elements of Agile projects that are incompatible with RACI charts — in fact, using a RACI chart is a great way to introduce Agile methods to teams that aren’t used to them.
• You might find better options in these less common alternatives—all use a chart with tasks and stakeholders like RACI, but they use different terms in an attempt to more clearly define roles.
• This simple chart gives you an at-a-glance view of RACI meanings and how many people to assign to each role in your RACI matrix.
• To visualize the overall picture, you may want to use a RACI matrix to show people and activities, and the role each person has in each activity.
• RAPID and RACI are both two important tools for project managers, but they have different functions.
• Informed – These are people who need to be kept in the loop during the project life-cycle.
• This template from the Academy to Innovate HR is a great choice for project managers who want to organize their team roles with an easy-on-the-eyes chart that evolves beyond the simple spreadsheet.

Feel free to group tasks by project phase like we’ve done in the RACI chart example below. First, make a list of all the work that needs to be done for your project down the left side of your RACI chart. Enter each project task, milestone, or decision in column A of your Excel worksheet. Consulted parties may be individuals on the project team who aren’t working on a given task but whose work will be affected by the outcome. They’re also often teammates outside of the project team—even in different departments—whose work will be affected by the outcomes of the project. That being said, the platform and tools you use to make it automated and up to date can have a significant impact on its success.

What is RASCI / RACI

Think of the accountable person in a RACI chart as a mini-CEO for that task. Sure, they might not be able to control how good website copy is, but if they’re accountable for its integration into a website design, they need to make sure it ends up in the right place. Whoever is assigned as the responsible person for a particular task is the person doing the actual work. If no one’s responsible for writing website copy, then that copy just won’t get written. To make things as easy as possible for you, we’ve created a simple blank RACI chart template, plus an example of how to fill one out.

All projects can benefit from the clear expectations provided by using a RACI chart, but it’s especially helpful when managing multiple resources or having task dependencies. Each task must have at least one responsible team member who does the work to complete the task. There can be, however, more than one responsible party assigned on the RACI matrix. It’s an efficient way to ensure everyone is on the same page and understands what they have to do. For some organizations, a single party responsibility is best for the completion of a task.

Only One Responsible in a RASCI, Combining R & A’s and the need for ‘S’, ‘C’ or ‘I’.

Only once you’ve got a clear outline of your project can you make educated decisions. That could be your Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) or a project roadmap. Before we get into the technical components of creating a RACI chart, let’s dive into stakeholder engagement briefly. A recent McKinsey study highlighted three key areas for engaging external stakeholders effectively — a corporate purpose, active use of technology, and organizational agility.