03 Jul Weeks 9 & 10 – Simulation Experiential Exercise

What Is a RACI Chart? Here’s Everything You Need To Know

By:  Olivia Montgomery, PMP and  Rahul Kumar on August 14, 2020

It takes forever to make a decision.

I have the responsibility for tasks but not the authority needed to complete them.

Decisions are reversed like a week after they’re made. What gives?

If these sentiments are shared in your project team, odds are the entire project effort is struggling because of a lack of clear roles and responsibilities. A RACI chart can be an excellent tool to help solve this problem.

1. What is a RACI chart?

A RACI chart, also known as a RACI matrix or RACI model, is a diagram that identifies the key roles and responsibilities of users against major tasks within a project. RACI charts serve as a visual representation of the functional role played by each person on a project team. Creating these charts is also an excellent exercise in balancing workload and establishing the decision-maker.

Gartner states, “Many important organizational initiatives begin without agreeing on decision authority. This oversight often becomes a painful discovery process—causing unneeded anxiety and frustration” ( full report available to Gartner clients only). Kicking off a project effort by creating a RACI diagram is one of the best possible ways to eliminate this painful discovery process.

 What does RACI stand for?

RACI is an acronym for responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed. Each represents the roles and levels of involvement of a stakeholder against the corresponding task/milestone. Let’s dive into the definition of each term.

PRO TIP: *This should be one person whenever possible so as to avoid confusion and slow decision-making.

How to create a RACI chart Below we’ll cover the six steps you’ll need to follow to create your own RACI chart.

To get you started, we’ve made a  RACI template for you here  (there’s an example for a website launch under the blank chart). Follow each step below to fill out the chart for your project.

Step 1: Identify the team members.

Examples include the project manager, executive sponsor, product manager, software developer, and business analyst.

PRO TIP: Use names whenever it makes sense—as opposed to job titles or teams. This helps solidify the commitment of the person in their role on the RACI matrix.

Step 2: Identify the major milestones in the project. If we take a project like building a website, the examples are website designing, testing, and client approval.

Step 3: Draw a matrix with a row for each team member and a column for each particular task/milestone. You can easily use Microsoft Excel or another software program to create a RACI chart.

Step 4: Fill in each box with the corresponding R, A, C, and I to designate the role of each person for every task.

For the client approval milestone in the aforementioned website building example, the project manager would be responsible for getting the client’s approval, the executive sponsor would be accountable, and the developer needs to be informed of the outcome.

Step 5: Discuss, analyze, and get approval from the project team.

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.

Step 6: Provide everyone a copy. You can just email the file out to everyone.

We really like this simple RACI chart that Adrian Neumeyer, founder and CEO of website  Tactical Project Manager , created for a fictitious construction project.

Example of a RACI chart ( Source )