What Is a RACI Chart? | Learn with Example & Definitions

RACI matrix for production support:

A RACI matrix is an easy, effective means for explaining project roles and responsibilities, providing a comprehensive chart of who is responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed each step of the way.Having managed and rescued dozens of projects, and helped others do so, there is always one critical success factor (CSF) that has either been effectively addressed or missed/messed up: clarity around the roles and responsibilities for every project participant and key stakeholder.No matter how explained and complete a project plan may be for any project, confusion or omission of participant roles and responsibilities will cause major problems.Enter the RACI matrix. The easiest and most effective approach used to explain and document project roles and responsibilities is the RACI model.Integrating the RACI model into an organization’s project life cycle (PLC) generates a powerful synergy that enhances and increases project outcomes.

What is a RACI matrix?

The RACI matrix is a responsibility assignment chart that maps out each task, milestone or key decision involved in finishing a project and assigns which roles are Responsible for every action item, which personnel are Accountable, and, where appropriate, who require to be Consulted or Informed.The four roles that stakeholders may play in any project are abbreviated as RACI.In almost 100 percent of these rescue efforts, they have found that there is no shared understanding of the participant roles and responsibilities, nor is there explicit documentation to support it.Establishing such a consensus by employing the RACI model almost always gets a stuck project moving again, and enables the key stakeholders to readily deal with other problems that need resolution.

RACI matrix rules and roles:

The RACI model brings structure and clarity to defining the roles that stakeholders play within the project.The RACI matrix clarifies responsibilities and ensures that everything the project requires is assigned to someone to do it.The 4 roles that stakeholders might play in any of the project include the following:

Responsible: These individuals are “in the loop” and active participants since they must provide input before the task can be completed and approved.Some people can be jointly Responsible.

Accountable: Person or stakeholder who is the “owner” of a work.He or she must sign off or approve when the task, objective or decision is finished.This person must make sure that the responsibilities are assigned in the matrix for all the related activities.Success needs that there is only one person Accountable, which means that “the buck stops there.”

Consulted: People or stakeholders who require to give input before the work can be done and signed-off on. These people are “in the loop” and also active participants.

Informed: People or stakeholders who require to be kept “in the picture.”They need updates on progress or decisions, but they do not need to be formally consulted, nor do they contribute directly to the task or a decision.

How to create a RACI matrix:

The simple process for generating a RACI model includes the following steps:

1. 1. Identify all the tasks involved in delivering the project and list them on the left-hand side of the chart in accomplished order.
2. 2. For IT projects, this is more effectively addressed by incorporating the PLC steps and deliverables.
3. 3. Find all the project stakeholders and list them along the top of the chart.
4. 4. Accomplish the cells of the model identifying who has responsibility, accountability and who will be consulted and informed for every task.
5. 5. Ensure that each and every task has at least one stakeholder Responsible for it.
6. 6. No tasks should have more than one stakeholder Accountable.
7. 7. Resolve any conflicts where there is more than one for a specific task.
8. 8. Share, discuss and agree the RACI model with the stakeholders at the start of the project.
9. 9. This includes resolving any conflicts or ambiguities.

RACI matrix example:

For purposes of simplification, let’s say that project can be broken down into 4 discrete tasks, undertaken by a team of application developers, along with a sponsoring Project executive,project manager,business analyst, andtechnical architect.

Step 1 : of the process involved mapping out the project as whole.The project manager is both accountable for this and in charge of the current task.To determine the scope and deliverables of the project, the project manager consults with the project’s executive sponsor and also business analyst about the process to be overhauled as part of the project.The project plan is then communicated to the technical architect and the application developers.

Step 2: the business analyst must then delve more deeply into the process to help map out every facet of the business process to be overhauled.The business analyst is those responsible for the task, with the project executive being accountable for signing off on this work.To understand the technical underpinnings of the current process, the business analyst will consult with the technical architect. The project manager and application developers will then be informed of the conclusions derived from this side of the project. Here is an illustration of a simplified RACI model for example project, taking these first two steps into accountThe subsequent third and fourth tasks involved shaping the new process.Again with the business analyst responsible for the work, and the other roles on the team following their same responsibilities.When the old process was being analyzed in Step 2.

Step 3: sees the project manager, who created the scope and deliverables in the previous phase, handing control to the technical architect, who creates a new architecture that will support the new process in Step 1.

RACI matrix template:

• Templates are available for free on the web for those looking to get started with a RACI model.
• These are geared toward Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, but also be available for more specialized software.

RACI matrix best practices:

• A RACI matrix alone is insufficient.
• Make sure the matrix corresponds to an effective and worthwhile strategy.
• Here, the plan’s disagreements and ambiguities must be resolved.
• Resolving conflicts and ambiguities in a RACI matrix involved looking across every row and up and down each column.

Analysis for each stakeholder:

Are there too many R’s: Does single stakeholder have too much of a project assigned to them?

No empty cells: Is the stakeholder required to be involved in so many of the activities? Can Informed become Consulted or Consulted become Responsible? I.e., are there so many “cooks in this kitchen” to keep things moving?

Buy-in: Does every stakeholder totally agree with the role that they are particular to play in this version of the model? When such agreement is achieved, that should be included in the project’s charter and also documentation.

Analysis for every PLC step or deliverable:

No R’s: Who is doing that work in this step and getting the things done? Whose responsibility is it to take the lead? ‘R’s in excess Another indication that there are too many “cooks in this kitchen” to keep things running smoothly?

No A’s: Who Is Responsible? Every PLC step requires a single “S” to be present.The buck must end with one stakeholder, who will be held accountable for the event.

More than one A: Is there confusion on decision rights? Stakeholders with an accountability have the final say on how the work should be done and how conflicts are resolved.Multiple A’s invited slow and contentious decision-making.

Every box filled in: Do all the stakeholders really require to be involved? Are there justifiable benefits in involving all the stakeholders, or is this just to cover all the bases?

A lot of C’s: Do all the stakeholders need to be routinely Consulted, or can they be kept data and raise exceptional circumstances if they feel they need to be Consulted?So many C’s in the loop really slows down a project.

Are all true stakeholders included in this model: Sometimes this is more of a challenge to ensure, as it’s an error of omission. This is best addressed by a steering committee or the management team.

RACI matrix in project management:

• It is the above analyses, which are readily enabled by the use of a RACI matrix, that delivered the real benefit of the model.
• It is the integration of the model with a particular PLC that ensures that the project is structured for success.
• Without either component, issues with the structure of the project management process may remain hidden until (or even while…) they cause the project to bog down.
• Creating the time and effort to create a customized PLC/RACI for every significant project is an opportunity to design the project management process for project success.

RACI matrix benefits:

A RACI chart offers benefits. Here’s a look at 5 features it offers.

Clear project overview: Sharing the RACI matrix is a good way to validate and educate the team members about their roles and those of others on the team.

Easy to create and use: Due to its easy visual nature, it can easily share a RACI matrix with stakeholders.It also offers an at-a-glance snapshot of the project team size and every person’s tasks and roles.Validation of responsibility and accountability for all tasks.Using a RACI matrix simplifies the process of ensuring that all the tasks have someone responsible and accountable for them.

Workload confirmation: By using some easy formulas and filtering, can view the level of responsibility and number of tasks assigned to the team members.If it becomes clear that someone has been assigned too many tasks, that can reassign the tasks early in the project.

Task assignment verification: Sharing the RACI matrix facilitates discussion about the roles assigned to every team member and allows for new resources to be added. Sharing the matrix also made it easy to move assignments from 1 employee to another.

Disadvantages of RACI matrix:

A RACI chart can be more helpful for the project, but it also has some disadvantages. Here are a few of them.

Time-consuming to create The process of building the task list, adding people and assigning the RACI roles can take a long time, and it often needs multiple iterations as the project’s planning phase progresses.

Difficult to maintain The RACI matrix can get out of date rapidly once the project is underway.

Potential duplicative effort One disadvantage of a RACI matrix for project management is a potential overlap between the RACI matrix and other tools. If using a project management application, I may find that there’s a lot of duplication between what’s entered in that and the RACI matrix.

Potentially too simplistic: If a project is larger in scope or the tasks are more level, project managers may be required to assign additional roles outside of those explained in RACI.