Project Management Tool: RACI Matrix

The RACI Matrix is a tool that helps you to understand the roles and responsibilities of people in an organization. There are multiple theories about who invented the RACI matrix but this came into existence in 1950's and after that this tool has become one of the favourite tool among stakeholders. It's now a widely used tool in project management and process improvement.

Practically, it is a simple spreadsheet with table that lists all stakeholders on a project and their level involvement in each requirement or task or activity. It is denoted with the letters R, A, C or I which stands for:

R- Responsible

A - Accountable

C- Consulted

I- Informed

Some organisations call it as R.A.S.C.I, where 'S' stands for 'Support' kind of stakeholders.

Once these roles are defined, assignments can be attributed to the roles and work can begin. Each of these letter means:

R - Responsible

The responsible person is the one who does the work to complete the task or project or activity. Every task should have at least one responsible person or many.

A - Accountable

The accountable person is the one who reviews the work involved in a project to make sure the responsible person knows the expectations of the project and completes work on time. Every task should have at least one responsible person or many.

C - Consulted

Consulted people provide input to understand the requirements or expectation on the project and provide feedback on the work being done in a project. They may have a stake in the outcomes of a project because it could affect their current or future work. They can be client stakeholder, business stakeholders, SME’s etc.

I - Informed

Informed people are the one who needs to be looped in all communication on the progress of a project but not necessarily consulted on the requirements. They stakeholders needs to be informed because it could affect their work, but they are not decision makers in the process.

Creating raci matrix

- Identify all requirements or activities on the project and list them down on each row of the RACI matrix chart.

- Identify all of the stakeholders including their roles on the project and list them along the top of the chart column wise.

- Identify who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed by filling the cells for each requirement or activity.

- Make sure no cell is missed while filling the details and no duplicates.

- Cross verify with project managers and get the sign off on the RACI.

- Update the RACI whenever changes have happened with respect to project requirements or stakeholders or their responsibilities and communicate to users.

Advantages

- Communication with stakeholders is clearer and organized

- Give visibility to stakeholders to understand what is in the pipeline and what is coming their way.

- Help stakeholders prepare for a project’s future impact on their work.

Dis Advantages

- Roles can be confusing sometimes.

- Time consuming process and it can become length for big and complex project where multiple stakeholders are involved.