RACI Matrix

Revision as of 17:40, 14 February 2021

Abstract

This article focuses on the RACI project management matrix. RACI being a synonym for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. ^[1]

Successful project organizations are the result of careful planning and collaboration of project team members. ^[1][2] Having clear roles and responsibilities is a crucial success factor for any kind of project. ^[1] Therefore, role definitions, responsibilities, and accountabilities must be determined to increase productivity, gain better results, and better communication with fewer misunderstandings and disruptions. The RACI matrix addresses this topic while providing a simple and effective tool for defining and documenting project roles and responsibilities. ^[3]

The RACI matrix brings structure and clarity to describing the roles that stakeholders play within a project. ^[1][3] The overall goal of the RACI matrix is to map out every task, milestone or key decision involved in completing a project and assigns which project individuals, as well as stakeholders, are responsible, accountable, consult and inform statuses for different project activities. ^[4] A RACI matrix can be implemented at any time after a project has been conceived or is underway. ^[3]

The following article describes what a RACI matrix is, what RACI roles are, what the overall benefits of RACI are, and how the RACI matrix can put into practice. The article also discusses the considerations and rules of RACI and gives alternatives to the conventional RACI matrix. At the end of the article, RACI’s limitations are going to be explained in more detail. Project groups can use this article to identify their team structure, roles, and responsibilities to make team operations more smoothly. Overall, all projects should introduce the RACI matrix to eliminate confusion while at the same time ensuring that all project team members understood their responsibilities.

The RACI Matrix

Definition of the RACI Matrix

The RACI matrix is a popular type of a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM). RAM being a grid that shows the project resources assigned to each work package to illustrate the connection between work packages or activities and project team members. At a high-level, RAM defines all responsible of a project team group or unit within each component of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), while low-level RAMs are used within a group to designate roles, responsibilities, and levels of authority for specific activities. ^[1]

A WBS can be the underlying foundation for a RACI matrix as a WBS divides a project into its elements that need to be planned and controlled. ^[5] Therefore, the RACI matrix can be used to divide the project into subtasks and work packages as part of the structuring process. “Activities (tasks), roles and activities are basic elements of a process." ^[6] The RACI matrix is most useful for multiple people or groups assigned to a certain project activity. The matrix shows key activities as rows and participating parties as columns. For each participating party, the RACI matrix indicates the responsible, accountable, consulted or informed. ^[7]

“The RACI matrix serves as the baseline of the communications plan by stipulating who receives information, how frequently, and at what level of detail.” To gain overall advantage of of RACI, the matrix should be established by the end of the planning phase of a project or being used to get stuck projects in the execution phase moving again. As soon as a RACI matrix has been created, it should be published in the Project Charter document. ^[8]

Roles of the RACI Matrix

The acronym RACI stands for the four roles that shareholders might play in any project: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. ^[1]

Assigning RACI roles to a project example

Figure 1: a simplified RACI matrix ^[3]

When creating a RACI matrix, it is important to assign the correct RACI roles to the correct and corresponding project team roles. In the following section, the project roles and their indicators from Figure 1 are going to be highlighted in more detail. Figure 1 is illustrating such a simplified RACI matrix by referring to a conventional project team structure within an IT project.

As a general guideline, as shown in figure 1, the project executive and project manager are often assigned the role of the accountable as they are held responsible for the planning, procurement, and execution of a project. At the same time, a project executive also assumes the role of the consulted, since project executives have a wealth of experience that can serve the project to be managed. In addition to the role of the accountable, the project manager, often assumes the role of the informed, as a project manager has to compile all project related information.

The RACI matrix in figure 1 highlights the roles of the project analyst and technical architect as the project executives. These two positions are responsible for the implementation of the individual work packages. Also, both roles include some consulting as well as informing activities.

In figure 1, the application developers only have the role of the informed assigned. That means that the developers do not have to contribute to the project but must be informed about definite activities. In some cases, the project manager can also assume the role of a responsible. However, this is not advisable as project managers cover multiple positions in a project and tend to have a heavy burden.

Benefits of the RACI Matrix Model

The use of a RACI matrix brings many benefits to a project. The following section is going to provide the most important benefits of the RACI matrix.

Streamline Communication

Providing a RACI matrix can be useful for focusing on the entire lifecycle of a project. Instead of involving every single person in every single decision, one can simplify communication by involving the right people at the right time and speed up approval and decision-making.

Avoid People Overload

Different stakeholders often perceive complex problems differently ^[2]. In most cases, the management tries to take all different opinions into account. However, this can end in misery. RACI solves this problem as the matrix distinguishes between Consulted and Informed and can consequently separate those involved in the feedback from those who are just being informed about the progress of the task.

Avoid Work Overload and Silos

Project managers often have multiple tasks at the same time, take on a lot of responsibility, and cover multiple positions in a project. The RACI matrix can be a useful tool to delegate and avoid project manager burnout. It also helps avoid a single point of failure, where all knowledge and responsibility for a task rests on one person, creating silos.

Additionally, RACI informs the organization about its employee workloads as it shows which roles are assigned to each person. ^[10]

Set Clear Expectations

When you create a RACI at the beginning of a project, it can be useful to set expectations about who will lead or be responsible for future work. People involved in the project should be able to identify where they need to be involved and in what tasks. This is especially important if the project team consists of internal and external resources. Here, the project must ensure clear divisions of roles and expectations. ^[1]

It can also help avoid confusion by showing who is ultimately responsible for completing a task. It is especially useful to set expectations for higher-level stakeholders who will be informed about the project: It will allow stakeholders to know what information they will receive as part of the project.

Ensure a Smooth Transition

RACI ensures a smooth transition and handoff when there is turnover. ^[9] Therefore, the RACI matrix is used as a documentation to show all responsibilities as well as activities of the project up to the respective transition. This allows the following project management to get in contact with the previous project members to solve e.g. open questions or problems.

Early Deliverable and Work-Package Review

When a RACI matrix is shared with all the stakeholders within a project team, it adds value by spotting out any missing deliverable requirements or work- packages, missing roles, missing stakeholders. Thus, it provides an opportunity for early correction of deliverable requirements and work- packages. ^[11][12]

Application of the RACI Matrix

How to use and create a RACI Matix

A RACI matrix can be applied to all projects in an organization, although they can be quite different when comparing them to each other as project sizes, roles as well as deliverables and work-packages differ from each other. The process of developing a RACI matrix is divided into five steps; Task Identification, Stakeholder identification, Role Definition, Matrix Review and Publication. In the following section, these steps are going to be explained in more detail. ^[13]

1. Task Identification

Use a WBS as the underlying foundation for the identification of all the tasks involved in delivering the project and divide the project into subtasks and work packages as part of the structuring process. This helps the project team to develop an objective, rational view of the amount of work required. ^[2] After, list all identified tasks on the left-hand side of the chart in completion order. “In IT projects, this is most effectively addressed by incorporating the product lifecycle steps and deliverables.” ^[3]

2. Shareholder Identification

Identify all the project stakeholders and list them along the top of the chart. Therefore, stakeholder identification requires to use different inputs to identify the shareholders which have the ability to influence the projects work and outcomes. Common inputs to identify which stakeholders are involved into the projects is a project charter, business document, project management plan, general project documents, agreements and organizational process assets. ^[1]

3. Role Definition

Assign RACI to each role and task of the project and complete the cells of the model while identifying who has responsibility, accountability and who will be consulted and informed for each project task. ^[3]

4. Matrix Review

Review the matrix and ensure every task has at least one stakeholder responsible for it. No tasks should have more than one stakeholder Accountable. Therefore, resolve any conflicts where there is more than one for a particular task. ^[3]

5. Publication

Share and discuss the RACI model with your stakeholders at the start of the project. If all involved stakeholders agree with it all involved stakeholders know what to do. “This includes resolving any conflicts or ambiguities.” ^[3][1] If RACI matrix was not created at the beginning of a project, it should be updated as the project progresses.

Considerations and Rules to create a RACI Matrix

For the RACI Matrix to be most effective there are a few things to consider. Solely creating a RACI matrix is not enough. The respective RACI creator/s must ensure that the matrix maps to a successful strategy in which understanding and defining roles and responsibilities are part of the foundation. Conflicts and ambiguities must be avoided. For this reason, the following points must be taken into account when creating a RACI matrix:

• Assign only one accountable per task as the accountable takes the decisions and actions on the project. Having multiple accountable causes confusion as different goals and expectations point in different directions. Therefore, it is paramount to clarify who the project accountable is.

• Every task needs a responsible and accountable role assigned to it. If one of the two roles is missing it will lead to ambiguities within the project. 

• Every task should only have one responsible as too many responsible might slow down the process.

• Assign only as many people as necessary to avoid inefficiencies. Many people try to control, influence, or work on something, with the quality of the final product suffering as a result. ^[9]

• If there is a quick and manageable task, the responsible could also be the accountable.

• Do not assign too many consults as it could slow the task completion as consulting with several people before completing a task can take time. Additionally, conflicting input on how to complete the task might be another waste of time. ^[10]

• "Keep people informed. Perhaps you do not need to consult with people, you simply need to update them. Make sure you have people in this role otherwise you could have problems relating to a lack of communication." ^[10]

The following section is going to highlight some general rules of how to resolve conflicts and ambiguities in a RACI matrix. That can be achieved by checking across each row and up and down each column for the following:

• No Empty Cells: Are all RACI rows and columns filled in?

• Check Responsibilities: Check if the stakeholders who are performing the work have too much work of the project assigned to them.

• One Accountable for Every Task: Does every task has only one Accountable?

• Check Authority of the Accountable: Check that the people who have been marked as Accountable have the authority to sign off on the task.

• Push Authority: Try to push authority down the organization by assigning A’s to the lowest rank people possible.

• Buy-in: Does each stakeholder understand and agree with the role that they are specified to play in this version of the model? Create the RACI chart with your team to ensure their buy-in.

• Update Regularly: Make sure to distribute the RACI matrix regularly and make updates based on feedback.

Extension of the RACI matrix

There are several variants of the original version of RACI. Some are based on extending the number of RACI roles to be considered for every activity, e.g., RACIO, RASCI or RACI-VS. Others give different meanings to the RACI initials as there might be roles that do not fit the mold. Especially in large projects with many moving parts, reducing clutter can improve efficiency and clarity. In this case, an alternative model of RACI could work well. The following section is going to present different alternatives of the RACI matrix. ^[14][9]

RACIO

RACIO is a RACI alternative that extends the RACI roles by including “O-Omitted” designation. It allows to exclude stakeholders that do not align perfectly into the RACI model. For instance, there might be no stakeholder who needs to be informed or consulted. So, if a task does not require every stakeholder to take an active role, stakeholder can be assigned to “O” who can ignore that task. ^[9]

RASCI

The RASCI matrix is extending the number of RACI roles by including “S-Support” designation. This function might be interesting specially to IT organizations, where work can usually be delegated to other people in order to complete a certain activity. Therefore, the “Support” designation is used to assign people who may assist in completing an activity. In that way, the responsible person, who must perform the work, can delegate work to the supporting role. ^[15]

RACI-VS

The RACI-VS matrix is extending the number of RACI roles by including “V-Verification” and “S” a “Sign-Off” designation. “To overcome any possible deficiencies in any task, RACI-VS allows marking those roles as “V” who will scrutinize the quality and correctness of a given specific task. And to supervise both “V” and “R” & “A” roles, there will be a role “S”-Sign-off who will provide the task completion verdict by approving it.” ^[16]

There are also other variations of the RACI matrix that give completely different meanings to the RACI designations.

DRASCI

DRASCI is just like RASCI but has a “D-Driver” designation which centrally delegates the responsibilities.

DACI

DACI it replaces “D-Driver” with “R-Responsible” in RACI.

RATSI

RATSI a further derivation of RASCI which highlights the actual “T-Task” performers which can further help in detailed resource evaluation.

Limitations of the RACI matrix

There are a few limitations to using a RACI matrix. The following section is going to highlight these limitations in more detail:

RACI will not fix a dysfunctional Team

To ensure the overall effectiveness of the matrix, RACI needs to have a functional team. RACI does not address and solves project team issues. For instance, lack of trust, disagreement, and tension, low engagement, poor morale, or a lack of team and/or task skills. RACI is not a tool that fixes dysfunctional teams. RACI improves communication flow in a cohesive group. ^[10]

RACI can be confusing

RACI can be confusing as it explains each person’s role, but it does not clarify actions that team members need to take. Some stakeholders feel that it is not clear whether the responsible or accountable plans the task. So, there should be clarity about who is planning the roles.

Also, the consulting role is unclear. Nobody knows if the consulted will only give direction when asked or whether they will offer direction when they feel it is suitable, and make sure their input is implemented. Therefore, the project manager and the person consulted need to decide which approach the consultant will take.

Is the Responsible not Accountable?

RACI gives the impression that the responsible is not accountable. Thus, the physical separation of the two roles gives the impression that only one person can be responsible or accountable at the same time. It is important to understand that the responsible is indeed accountable for processing the work. One could argue that the responsible is rather task-oriented accountable while the accountable is much more responsible for the overall project delivery. However, RACI reaches its limits here, and the question of who is responsible for what should be clarified individually between the different roles.

RACI’s Variations and Alternatives

Depending on the setup of the project team, the RACI matrix has variations and alternatives. ^[17]

Having different variations and alternatives of one tool is confusing. It appears that these variations and alternatives are compensating for the original matrix design. “If it had been designed well, one version of the matrix would suffice.” ^[10]

Conversely, it can be argued that the RACI model is flexible and its project team members can be delegated according to the project goal. So if the aspects of RACI are too vague, consider it as an opportunity to think out of the box and use the tool to adapt it to the project-related needs.

RACI does not Account for the Approval Process on Stakeholders as well as Tasks or Deliverables

In a RACI matrix, it can quickly happen that a detailed stakeholder analysis is not performed and project roles are assigned at will or even worse by gut feeling. The same is true for the task definition. Often, the approval process for tasks or deliverables is not taken into consideration and process mapping is completely omitted. RACI does not replace a stakeholder analysis or a process mapping but integrates it into a matrix. Therefore, it is important to use the RACI matrix not as a substitute but rather as a tool for additional definition.

Annotated Bibliography

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8} Project Management Institute, Inc.. (2017). Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). 6th Edition. Newtown Square: Independent Publishers Group.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Züst R. and Troxler P. (2006). No More Muddling Through: Mastering Complex Projects in Engineering and Management. 2nd Edition. Zürich: Orell Füssli Verlag.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7} Kantor, B. (2028). The RACI matrix: Your blueprint for project success [online]. Available at: https://www.cio.com/article/2395825/project-management-how-to-design-a-successful-raci-project-plan.html (Accessed: 02/08/2021)
4. ↑ Chung, E. (2017). RACI vs RAM for PMP Exam [online]. Available: https://edward-designer.com/web/raci-vs-ram-for-pmp-exam/ (Accessed: 02/05/2021)
5. ↑ Racichart.org. (2021). WBS [online]. Available: https://racichart.org/wbs/ (Accessed: 02/07/2021)
6. ↑ Ying L., Lijun X. and Wei S. (2009). Configuration Management Process Design and Implementation [online]. Sanya: ISECS International Colloquium on Computing, Communication, Control, and Management. Available at: https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.proxy.findit.dtu.dk/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5268166 (Accessed: 02/08/2021).
7. ↑ Averdunk, I. (2021). Clarify roles and responsibilities by using a RACI matrix [online]. Available: https://www.ibm.com/garage/method/practices/manage/raci-matrix/ (Accessed: 02/08/2021).
8. ↑ Friedman, S. (2008). Roles, Responsibilities, and Resources: Best Practices in Managing People [online]. Available at: https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/best-practices-managing-people-quality-management-7012 (Accessed: 02/08/2021).
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7} Lucid Content Team. (2021). How the RACI Matrix Will Streamline Your Project Lifecycle [online]. Available at: https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/what-is-a-raci-matrix (Accessed: 02/09/2021)
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4} Santos Delos, J.M. (2020). Understanding Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RACI Matrix) [online]. Available at: https://project-management.com/understanding-responsibility-assignment-matrix-raci-matrix/ (Accessed: 02/02/2021).
11. ↑ Kahn, P. M. and Quranshi, K. A.. (2014). Impact of RACI on Delivery & Outcome of Software Development Projects [online]. Rohtak: Fourth International Conference on Advanced Computing & Communication Technologies. Available at: https://ieeexplore-ieee-org.proxy.findit.dtu.dk/xpl/conhome/6783005/proceeding (Accessed: 02/09/2021).
12. ↑ Haworth, S. (2021). Eine Zuordnungsmatrix Für Zuständigkeiten Anlegen (RACI-Matrix) [online]. Available at: https://thedigitalprojectmanager.com/de/raci-matrix-erstellen/ (Accessed: 02/09/2021).
13. ↑ EPM (2021). How to Use a RACI Matrix | RACI Model [online]. Available at: https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2010/01/how-to-use-a-raci-matrix-raci-model/ (Accessed: 02/10/2021).
14. ↑ Meersman, R. et al.. (2012). On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems: OTM 2012. 2nd Edition. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
15. ↑ Cabanillas, C., Resinas, M. and Ruiz-Cort ́es, A. (2014). Mixing RASCI Matrices and BPMN Together for Responsibility Management? [online]. Available at: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=02D0EB439057B7854B064EE0B5AB6F16?doi=10.1.1.468.341&rep=rep1&type=pdf (Accessed: 02/11/2021).
16. ↑ Interfacing. (2021). RACI vs. RAPID Responsibility Matrix [online]. Available at: https://www.interfacing.com/rapid-vs-raci (Accessed: 02/13/2021).
17. ↑ CSI Team. (2016). How to use a RACI chart to define content roles and responsibilities [online]. Available at: https://contentstrategyinc.com/how-to-use-a-raci-chart-to-define-content-roles-and-responsibilities/ (Accessed: 02/13/2021).