It is common practice that if something goes wrong anywhere, it is hard to find anybody responsible.
As a project manager, it is your duty to develop your team from the very start and reduce the storming phase period in a team development model – Tuckman’s Ladder.
A RACI model is a helpful tool for identifying roles and responsibilities among the team in systematic order. Here, you will set expectations from your team members, and it will also help if you need more manpower or optimize the current lot. Even you can release the extra resources after a careful analysis.
Let see every day’s simple RACI use;
| Roy | Me | Jeffery | |
| Cook a Meal | R | A | |
| Grocery Shopping | R | C | I |
| Laundry | C | A |
We will learn all about RACI as below.
Quick Navigation
What is a RACI?
A RACI chart is a responsibility chart that allocates the level of input from a team member or project stakeholder to have on any given project chunk. The RACI allocations are:
- Responsible
- Accountable
- Consulted
- Informed
A project that involves many team members called RACI stakeholders may struggle to collaborate. A project is pure teamwork.
As a project manager, it is your role to understand the team members well and assign the ownership as per the competency of members. When all the tasks are assigned and have at least one designated owner, it will reduce the team’s chaos.
The RACI model is a straightforward tool. The primary purpose is to identify roles and responsibilities. It avoids confusion for those roles and responsibilities during a project life cycle. The RACI stands for:
- Responsible: The one who will complete the work for that task or activity. He is the one to make any decision. It can be a single person that will help for faster decision-making. A developer, analyst, technical manager, etc., can be fit for this. The responsibility can be shared with others. The individual determines the degree of responsibility with the “A.”
- Accountable: The person who signs off / approves that a task is completed as per contractual requirements. For example, an area manager is responsible for completing the construction if constructing a steel structure, but the accountable party must validate and approve before signed-off for delivery. This is a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ authority and veto authority. Only one person can be assigned to an action.
- Consulted: The person or a team that is to provide a solution or information about the project. Usually, a subject matter expert fits here to advise on the best way to perform or resolve any issue. This is a predetermined need for two-way communication. Input from the only designated position is required.
- Informed: It is that who should be informed or reported for the outcome of project tasks. Up-to-date information to be delivered to that person will help flood the email inbox from irrelevant parties. This place usually for managers or executives who require oversight for a project’s performance. This individual (s) is the one who is informed after a decision/action is taken.
Why RACI?
Looking to get work done without clearly defining the roles and responsibilities is like trying to do parallel park – Not easy for even both eyes open yet for me. 😊
When everyone on the same page knows what expectations are from him/her, it is clear for him/her to get the job done on time, within budget, and up to quality.
A RACI Matrix helps to resolve;
· Concerns over who to make decisions
· Blaming others
· Workloads Imbalance
· Ineffective communications among stakeholders
· No idea who is doing what
· Idle time Issues
· Poor morale
· Chaos among team members
How to Draw a RACI Matrix?
Follow the below steps to draw a RACI chart;
- Identify Work Process: Start from High impact/important areas. The work process should be well defined. Make sure to have activities or tasks between 10-25.
- Determine Decisions and Activities: Use only clearly define activities. Use clear wording, no generic stuff.
- Enlist of Roles or People Involved: Put roles instead of an individual name so that the chart would still be valid if you add new people.
- Develop the RACI Matrix: A general rule, first assign R’s then determine who the A has, then complete C’s, and I’s
- Take Feedback and Team Buy-in: Once prepared, send the RACI chart to everyone represented on the
chart but was not present in the development meeting. Any suggestion or change review and implement – Redistribute
The RACI Triangle
You can clearly see that an account should be one person or minimum entity as this will sign off the work and hence be designated with the highest authority. Other responsible can be more but should be minimum to make decisions clear and fast.
Example of A RACI Chart
A RACI chart can be drawn on simple paper or MS Excel. You can download the RACI Excel Template.
Just follow the above RACI rules and make it as per your project scenario. 
RACI Guidelines
Make sure to follow these guidelines during the development of a RACI chart;
- Put Accountability (A) and Responsibility (R) at the lowest possible level.
- The ideal group to develop RACI size is four to ten people.
- Only one accountable per activity
- Authority must accompany accountability.
- Minimize the number of Consults (C) and Informs (I)
- All roles and responsibilities must be documented and communicated throughout the team members mentioned on the RACI chart.
- Avoid personal relations to define the roles and responsibilities.
Variation of RACI used by the PMI – Project Management Institute RSI, responsible, sponsor, and informed.
More variations are:
- RASCI: with the “S” standing for Support
- RACIO: with the “O” standing for Out of the Loop or Omitted
- RACI-VS: with the “V” standing for Verify and the S for Signatory
- CLAIM: Contributes, Leads, Approves, Monitors
- PACSI: Performed, Accountable, Control, Suggested, Informed
- RAPID: Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, Decide
RACI Matrix | Benefits
A RACI Matrix is beneficial to managing a project in many ways. Some are as follows:
- RACI Matrix improves the communication among the team – Best Use
- It defines the authority of each one on a project team.
- To draw a chart needs no software skills.
- Anyone can understand it easily.
- The workload is defined properly – no over-allocation.
- Helps to optimize the project resources
- Clearly displays the contact person in every area.
- It shows the responsible person & accountable also.
- Helps to avoid & conflict resolution
- It helps to make faster decisions
- It helps with resource optimization and balance allocation.
- It improves understanding of roles and responsibilities within a department and at the work process.
RACI Matrix | Pitfalls
There are also disadvantages of using a RACI chart:
- It may be time-consuming to create complex projects.
- Most of the team do not follow or ignore after approval.
- It adds unnecessary complexity to handle a project if not created properly.
- It is not a deliverable & hence most of the team don’t bother to look at it.
- In complex projects, it is difficult to identify which individual is accountable for any given task.
- A single template cannot be used for every project. You have to develop, but RACI rules will remain the same.
- It lacks flexibility when going for shuffling assignments, responsibility, and/or accountability as it can be mixed up.
Wrap Up
RACI is a tool that managers or supervisors are not solely responsible for or accountable for every wrongdoing. It reduces the pressure from a project manager as well as from the team members. Always make sure to have a meeting again if you are going to make significant RACI Matrix changes.
Thanks for sharing – I’d not seen the RACIO variant before. I can see how this would be relevant when dealing with sensitive data or on security projects. Care would need to be taken in other environments, though, or people could end up being offended by being explicitly excluded.