What are the RACI roles?

The four RACI codes (Responsible, Authorize, Consult and Inform) are easy enough to understand. Probably the best web download on the subject is on the Project Management Institute website by Michael L. Smith and James Erwin.  

Let’s start by looking at the basic building blocks of RACI, the codes: 

RACI is really a tool. Like many tools, although it is simple, the RACI model starts to feel more complex as soon as you put it into practice. In this way, working with RACI is more like a SKILL that needs to be developed than it is like a LEARNING that you acquire by reading or hearing a presentation about it. Think for a moment about learning to play a musical instrument, like the violin. You can understand the theory behind violin sound production, you can listen attentively while someone demonstrates the beautiful sounds that a violin can make, but until you take the violin into your own hands and try to play it, you will always remain in the audience. Anyone who has tried to play a violin will attest to the fact that it is a lot harder to make beautiful music with it than it looks! 

So let’s see if we can get underneath the simple definitions of the RACI codes and understand how they really operate in practice.

Responsibility:  The “R” code is important when you are trying to enhance ACCOUNTABILITY in the system. The person who holds the “R” is the one who will make sure that this piece of work gets done. If you have an “R” for a piece of work, you are asking yourself questions like, “When will I have time to do this work? What kinds of resources will it take? When is it due?” The anxiety of holding the "R" role is whether or not you can do everything, or do everything well. If you have too many "R"s, you feel overwhelmed. 

If the work doesn’t get done at all, that’s a failure of the "R" accountability in the organization.

R-Prime: The R-Prime or "R-1" code is used whenever two or more people have "R" responsibility for a shared task. This kind of collaboration is great, but it can also create confusion about who is doing what or duplication of work. The R-Prime role takes responsibility for orchestrating the work of the others. This individual may have work on their own to contribute or they may just be the coordinator. In either case, you always know you can ask the R-Prime individual to update you on the status of that activity. 

Authorize:  The “A” role holds the AUTHORITY in the system, and must approve a decision or determine if a particular task has been done well. This person is accountable for something quite different—their job is to exercise judgment in making the decision. If you have the "A" role for a piece of work, you are making a choice. The risk for you in the "A" role is simple but profound: you can be wrong.

Note that we define the "A" differently than the Project Management Institute, who defines the "A" as Accountable. At RACI Solutions, we believe that all the roles have accountability built into them, and so we define the "A" as Authorize. In our system, the person with the "A" role has the authority to make decisions or exercise a veto. Anyone who can stop a project from moving forward is the "A".

So what if you delegate work to someone else, and give him or her the "R"? Being in the "A" role often means that you are the person who must ultimately supervise them in doing that work. Did the job get done? Did the job get done well enough? These are the kinds of things you worry about.

Consult: The “C” role is perhaps the easiest to understand. A person is given a “C” role if they have a particular knowledge or expertise to CONTRIBUTE to the decision or the task. In this role, you give advice. It’s easy to recognize a “C” role because if you have a "C," you must be included BEFORE the decision is made. People turn to you because they believe that you know something important that will contribute to a good recommendation or outcome.

Think about IT and new product design—often we give the "C" role to a group of end users so that they can improve the design before it is finalized. (This is an old socio-technical principle that those who use a product should participate in its design.) 

Inform:  The “I” role comes after the fact, because the person doesn’t participate in the decision before it is made. In the "I" role, you are INFORMED about the decision afterwards—you don’t participate. Thinking carefully about who “needs to know” about actions and decisions is good stakeholder management.

You can use these four RACI codes as a language—a kind of shorthand—to talk about accountability and authority in your workplace, without ever taking the next step of constructing a formal RACI matrix. This way of using RACI—call it RACI Lite—is powerful all by itself and will enhance collaboration tremendously—all you have to do is know what you’re talking about.

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The RACI chart has long been a popular tool amongst project managers around the world. Also referred to as the RACI matrix, it’s used to clarify employee roles and responsibilities for each task, milestone and decision that takes place throughout a project.

The chart is designed to ensure clear communication and smooth workflows across all parts of a team. RACI charts can help prevent that sinking feeling when a major decision-maker comes at the end of a project and complicates things with a large number of changes because they weren’t consulted throughout the project.

What Is a RACI Chart?

A RACI chart, also called a RACI matrix, is a type of responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) in project management. In practice, it’s a simple spreadsheet or table that lists all stakeholders on a project and their level involvement in each task, denoted with the letters R, A, C or I. Once these roles are defined, assignments can be attributed to the roles and work can begin.

R, A, C, I stands for:

• Responsible
• Accountable
• Consulted
• Informed

Here’s what each designation means:

Responsible

Responsible designates the task as assigned directly to this person (or group of people). The responsible person is the one who does the work to complete the task or create the deliverable. Every task should have at least one responsible person and could have several.

Responsible parties are typically on the project team and are usually developers or other creators.

Accountable

The accountable person in the RACI equation delegates and reviews the work involved in a project. Their job is to make sure the responsible person or team knows the expectations of the project and completes work on time. Every task should have only one accountable person and no more.

Accountable parties are typically on the project team, usually in a leadership or management role.

Consulted

Consulted people provide input and feedback on the work being done in a project. They have a stake in the outcomes of a project because it could affect their current or future work.

Project managers and teams should consult these stakeholders ahead of starting a task to get input on their needs, and again throughout the work and at the completion of a task to get feedback on the outcome.

Not every task or milestone needs a consulted party, but the project manager should consider all possible stakeholders when creating the RACI chart and include as many consulted parties as is appropriate. You should limit this to only necessary input, however. For example, one consulted party per affected team is generally considered best practice to avoid clogging the process with too much input.

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.

Informed

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.

Informed parties are usually outside of the project team and often in different departments. They might include heads or directors of affected teams and senior leadership in a company.

When Should You Use a RACI Matrix?

The framework of a RACI chart is useful for almost any project, although some teams might find it more useful than others

For example, I know in creating this article that I’m the responsible party, because I’m doing the work of writing. My editor is accountable for assigning and reviewing the work. And they likely have consulted and informed others around them, such as a managing editor and an SEO specialist.

But this project is fairly simple. It only takes a few steps and includes a handful of stakeholders. A formal RACI chart comes in handy for complex and long-lasting projects that include lots of stakeholders, tasks and milestones, especially if work is overlapping.

For example, a company’s website redesign would require design, copy and development teams to work on tasks concurrently. Each task would affect work in sales, marketing, finance and business development. Structural changes, timelines and major costs would require input and approval from senior management.

Needs are easily overlooked and requirements dropped in such complex projects.

A project manager typically creates a RACI chart to avoid missing those important details and ensure clear communication throughout the project.

Using RACI with Other Project Management Methodologies

Agile is a very popular type of project management, especially for tech workers. While RACI is applicable to agile project management, schools of thought vary on whether it is necessary for an agile context.

Additionally, the Scrum and Scrumban project management methodologies build project ownership (accountability) into their framework and are designed to facilitate regular communication among project teams and outside stakeholders. That makes a RACI chart seem redundant for this method and possibly a poor use of a project manager’s time.

However, additional communication and clarification—in a systematic fashion—tend to be more of a benefit than a drawback for any project, so some SCRUM project managers find RACI useful for clarifying roles for individual projects or their overall process.

Example RACI Chart (and How to Use It)

To create a RACI chart, list all of a project’s tasks down the left-hand column and stakeholders across the top row. For each task, enter an R, A, C or I to assign a level of involvement for each stakeholder in each task.

For example, in the matrix above:

• The senior analyst is responsible for completing the work in the econometric model.
• The SVP finance is accountable for that task—they assign it to the senior analyst and review the work.
• The team will consult the SEO lead for input before and feedback after the task.
• The team will inform the project manager, head of design, sales director and senior management of the project’s progress.

Color coding tasks can be useful to see at a glance whether any team member is responsible for too many tasks within a project and to make sure you’ve assigned at least one Responsible and one Accountable party for each task.

Breaking the chart down by project phases also lets you see how many tasks anyone is responsible for within a certain timeframe, which can help distribute work evenly and avoid overwhelm.

Pros and Cons of RACI

From a project management perspective, things like more organization and clearer communication are generally better, so the benefits of using a RACI chart on a project far outweigh the drawbacks in most cases. With that in mind, teams should be cognizant of the initial time investment of creating a RACI chart and the rigidity of the roles.

Pros

• Maintain clear and open communication with all stakeholders.
• Avoid overwhelming team members with tasks or unnecessary information.
• Avoid “too many cooks” offering input on any task.
• Help stakeholders prepare for a project’s future impact on their work.

Cons

• You might spend time unnecessarily creating the chart for simple projects.
• Roles are rigid and might not fully illustrate a team member’s stake in a project.

You might see additional drawbacks using a RACI chart for your project if your team succumbs to some common pitfalls, including:

• Stakeholders will be confused if they don’t understand the differences among the terms, especially Responsible versus Accountable and Consulted versus Informed.
• It’s a formality and a waste of time if no one references it after approval.

RACI Matrix Alternatives

Some teams find the roles designated through the RACI model aren’t the right fit for their projects. 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.

RASCI

This alternative to RACI uses the RACI model plus S for Supportive. This is someone who participates in doing the work of a task by supporting the responsible parties.

CARS

This model designates stakeholders as:

• Communicate: These are the consulted and informed parties.
• Approve: This is the decision maker.
• Responsible: This person does the work.
• Support: These parties support the responsible person in doing the work.

RAS

This model simplifies CARS with just the Responsible, Approve and Support roles. It eliminates communication outside the project team, which would need to be accounted for another way in the project management method.

DACI

This model includes these roles similar to RACI:

• Drivers: The people who do the work.
• Approvers: The decision makers.
• Contributor: People who are consulted on the task.
• Informed: People who are informed of the project’s progress.

CLAM

In this model, stakeholders are assigned these actions:

• Contribute: People who are consulted and who do the work.
• Lead: People who delegate work and manage a task.
• Approve: Decision makers.
• Monitor: People who are kept in the loop on a project’s progress.

Bottom Line

Projects can be complex, confusing and chaotic. 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.

A RACI chart is one tool that helps project managers keep a project on track.

By listing all stakeholders and assigning a level of involvement for each task, the chart helps teams communicate clearly and keep the right people in the loop.