Making a RACI chart is an effective means to determine and document project roles and responsibilities. Assigning roles over the RACI matrix will let each employee know about their tasks and responsibilities.

A RACI chart will improve your project management skills significantly when you know the person responsible for a particular task, who needs to be consulted, and who are the ones that must be kept informed at every step. 

So here we're bringing all the focal points about RACI Matrix, its key components, and some templates to help you make one of your own and help you have a successful project.

The acronym "RACI" stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. A RACI chart brings clarity and a structure to describe the roles of everyone involved in a certain task.

But to apply the RACI model, you need to understand it properly. Let's break down each one of those points.

Responsible

It is the person responsible for completing the task. They are the "doers" as they carry out the actions and implementations of rules. 

They get the job done, and though the responsibility can be shared, some accountability must be maintained. 

Accountable

It is the individual who oversees the job and is answerable for all the activity in the decision. This person ensures that all responsibilities are properly assigned in the RACI matrix. 

They are the ones who are in charge of approving or disapproving anything. Even though responsibilities can be shared, accountability can't be shared among people. There will be only one person as an A in a project plan.

Consulted

It is an individual or a group of people who have the experience and expertise to be consulted. Before taking a final decision or action, one should consult them before carrying it out. 

These consultants must always be in the loop and actively participate in the project. They are responsible for providing information about the project, too. For this subject, you can assign tasks to several people according to their expertise and experience.

Informed

This person or group needs to be kept up to date on the progress of a task or deliverable. They are usually upper management or high over the project leadership (it can be a client, too). 

They should understand the project's progress, but they do not have immediate input on completing the work.

We stated some before, but let's remember the main reasons you should use a RACI matrix template to help progress your project even more if you are dealing with a large and complex one.

Better Communication

With a RACI matrix in place, you can refer back to it throughout the lifecycle of a project. You don't need to involve everyone in every decision, so you can streamline communication and decision-making. You only need to involve the right people at the right time, speeding up the whole process.

Avoiding Work Overload

The great thing about having a clear distinction between Consulted and Informed is that you can divide those involved in feedback and those who only will be updated on the progress of the task.

A RACI chart is a useful tool for a project manager to delegate and avoid possible burnout. It helps to mitigate having a single point of failure, where all responsibility and knowledge for the task rest in only one person.

Sets Clear Objectives

You can get many benefits using a RACI matrix for your project. It can be helpful to set expectations for those managing the work going forward. People involved should be able to see where they need to be involved and with which tasks.

It can help to eliminate role confusion, setting who is accountable for a task's completion. It is useful to set goals with more senior stakeholders who are informed about the project. It'll allow them to see what information they will receive as part of the project.

We'll provide you with some RACI chart templates below, but perhaps you might find them confusing. With the following steps, you will clearly understand how a RACI template works.

Set All Project Tasks

The very first step is to determine all the tasks for the project and list them down on the other side of the chart in a proper manner. You should start with high-impact areas. 

You can divide it into project phases (something we recommend), or just make a large list of project tasks. 

List All Team Members

Now you should list all the stakeholders (even if they won't work directly with the project) and team members. 

You should use job titles or roles within this section, but using only their names is fine. It is useful if someone unfamiliar with the people involved in the project is looking at the matrix.

Assign Each Task to Its Corresponding RACI Diagram

Start to assign RACI roles. Define who will be responsible for the tasks and who will be accountable. Also, mention which individual or people will be consulted before doing every task and who they should inform. 

Once it is done, discuss the task distribution with your team and get feedback. You can distribute the RACI chart among everyone and ask them for advice and ideas. Adjust it if you find it necessary so the diagram is based on mutual decision and understanding.

This free RACI Matrix template allows team members, project management, project sponsors, and stakeholders to easily track project responsibilities and roles. You should enter your project title, phases, and tasks for each and assign team members for every task. 

The template helps ensure that you and your team successfully finish your project's deliverables. You can download it for free from Smartsheet.com.

This template comes with the project phases already set up, many job titles where you can edit them corresponding to your organization and project, and assign the RACI roles by their responsibilities.

You can get this template from ProjectManager.com.

This template is easy to customize and edit as you want. You can easily color-code the chart thanks to the automated process formulated, making it beginner-friendly. Assigning the RACI roles is straightforward, as it is just a matter of choosing from a drop-down box.

You can download it for free from the ExcelDownloads website (you might need to have WinRAR or WinZIP installed to extract the file).

This template allows multiple team members to access and adjust it if necessary, thanks to the cloud technology powered by Google. It allows team members to collaborate in real-time and is easy to share after one is done customizing it to suit the project's need.

But, if you are more comfortable working on Excel, you can open it and download it as an Excel file.

This template is done in a straightforward format that requires minimum editing. It clearly shows where to list roles and tasks you have assigned to individuals.

You can get it for free from the ClickUp blog.

With this RACI model template, you can manage project roles with precision. Column sections are color-coded to better visualize responsibilities, which are divided into groups where you can assign tasks to individual roles. 

Once you have introduced all project phases and tasks, you can define the RACI roles. You can download this template from the Smartsheet website.

This comprehensive template allows you to coordinate responsibilities and roles for your project. It includes built-in phases in which you can assign individual tasks to team members. 

This template comes in two versions. You can download it with pre-filled information (that will guide you throughout the process) or a blank template that needs to be filled with your desired information. You will get both from Smartsheet.com.