What is RACI matrix in Project Management?

Project Managers have to do record-keeping of tasks and the associated task-owner so that they can know who is responsible for the specific deliverables within the project. Thus, they must manage the information and records efficiently. RACI is a Project Management tool used for such purposes. It helps to maintain a team-wide responsibility of roles and keep all the information upfront with transparency. In this article, you will get to know about the RACI matrix, its advantages, and examples. So, without any delay, let us dive into the RACI matrix.

What is the RACI Matrix?

RACI Matrix is a visual tool that describes the information about the roles and responsibilities of team members in a team.

• This helps to know who is liable for the various actions and decisions taken within a project.
• Using the RACI chart, we can easily keep track of team members and their assigned roles across the different phases of the project.
• As the project scales to multiple teams, track of roles for teammates may become lost.
• Therefore, RACI can help us to keep the pace of record-keeping consistent throughout the project.

Components of RACI Matrix

RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. Each of these component are discussed below:

1. Responsible

Responsible persons are those members who directly take charge of task completion. These persons are the ones who are responsible for the updates and completion of the project. Generally, there is only one person who is responsible for the task which assures clarity in project completion. However, there can be more than one responsible person for a task. Examples of Responsible persons are Developers and Business Analysts.

2. Accountable

The accountable team member is the one who manages the completion of the project. The Accountable persons may or may not be doing the actual work. However, they label the work as complete, incomplete or ongoing, depending upon the progress. There is only a single Accountable Personnel for a project. We can say that Accountable persons are the senior executives who ensure the project completion. These include Product Owners, Business Owners and other key stakeholders.

3. Consulted

A consulted person is the one who reviews the work before it gets delivered. They provide feedback for the deliverable or project milestone to ensure that all the work meets the requirements. There is no limit to the Consulted persons in a team. There can be single or many consulted persons depending upon the need, for example, Compliance Consultants or Legal Experts.

4. Informed

Informed persons are those who must be kept informed during the entire workflow of the project completion. They are not given the entire details, but a small overview without involving them in the key decision-making. The Informed persons include Project Committee members or External Stakeholders.

The relation among the above components is outlined below:

Role	Definition	Description
Responsible	Does the work to complete the task.	This person is actively involved in executing the task or activity. They are the ones who perform the necessary actions to ensure the completion of the task.
Accountable	Delegates work and review the task or deliverable before it’s complete.	This person is ultimately answerable for the success and failure of the work. They delegate the work to the responsible party and ensure that the final outcome meets expectations.
Consulted	Provides inputs and feedback based on their domain of expertise on the deliverable itself.	This individual or group provides valuable input, leveraging their expertise or considering the impact on their domain, influencing the task or deliverable’s direction.
Informed	Needs to be kept in the loop on project progress, rather than roped into details of every deliverable.	This person or group is kept informed about the project’s progress and developments. They are not directly involved in the task execution but need to be aware of overall project status.

Advantages of RACI Matrix

• Defines clear expectations: RACI Chart helps us to identify the scope of different components, tasks or deliverables and the future scope of the project.
• Makes execution efficient: It prevents the team members from being overburdened by the tasks or assigned work. It also smoothens the communication among the team members.
• Prevents unnecessary resource allocation: RACI Matrix provides a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities in a team so that information regarding a particular role can be easily queried.
• Helps in quick-action taking: It strengthens the decision-making in Project Management as the different stakeholders are regularly updated with the project’s completion.

How to Create RACI Matrix?

To create a RACI Matrix for your project, you have to first identify the different stakeholders responsible for your project outcome across different stages of the project’s lifecycle. After that, you have to identify the different processes, activities and actions during the project.

Suppose in a Project Team, the various tasks and deliverables are to be developed which includes various phases of product development from requirement gathering to testing and deployment. Then, each member of a team would be assigned a specific role or responsibility. Thus, the RACI Matrix for this case is demonstrated below:

Example of RACI Matrix which highlights the various phases of the Software Product Development:

Activity	Project Manager	Architect	Business Owner	Developers	Designers	Writers	Tester
Requirement Analysis	A	R	C	I	C	I	C
System Design	R	A	C	I	C	I	C
Prototype Development	R	I	C	A	R	I	C
Code Implementation	R	I	C	A	R	I	C
UI/UX Design	C	I	A	R	A	R	C
Documentation Writing	C	I	A	C	R	A	I
Unit Testing	C	I	C	R	C	I	A
Integration Testing	C	I	C	A	C	I	R
User Acceptance Testing	C	I	A	C	C	I	R
Product Release and Deployment	A	R	C	I	C	I	C

Here, R means Responsible, A means Accountable, C means Consulted and I signifies Informed person respectively.

Conclusion: RACI matrix in Project Management

RACI Matrix is a useful tool for Project Managers to keep track of team-level roles and manage the deliverables of the project. It not only captures the relevant responsibilities of person but also ensures that external stakeholders and consultants are kept informed about the flow of project execution. Additionally, it also prioritizes the tasks and prevents multiple persons from doing the same tasks and saving resources.