RACI Matrix

RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. It is also known as linear responsibility chart (LRC). RACI matrix is used in the business process. It describes the participation by different roles in finishing tasks.  It was useful in identifying the roles and responsibilities in cross-functional or departmental project and process. Accountability is good and it distributes the work evenly to the team members.

The project size is not a problem. However it is small, job descriptions should be defined clearly.  Whether it is a small team or an international team, all are must be understand their role and responsibility. Everyone must complete their tasks. RACI matrix is used to define each person’s role and responsibility. It determines the work of each team member. This works on reducing the confusion on expectation, it increases the efficiency of the project.

RACI Matrix refers to responsibility assignment matrix; this is also known as linear responsibility chart. It talks about the contribution to different roles in making the tasks complete or making a business process complete. This is basically useful in making the roles and responsibilities very clear in the departmental processes and projects. The ability of a company is a major factor of how much profit and order a company receives. For a company to remain in business, it needs to focus on getting the projects deliver. While delivering the project the time and quality also needs to be kept in mind. Fir this, most of the companies look forward to various project management tools and softwares. This not only provides them edge over competitors but also streamline they work and manage it in a better way. One such method of project management is by means of using RACI Matrix.

RACI is an acronym that has resulted from the four main responsibilities those are used very commonly such as Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed.

Responsible: This is also known as the recommender. This is one of the important factors of the RACI Matrix.  This speaks about the people who work in order to make a task complete. It includes minimum one role with a contribution sort of responsible, though others can be given a task to assist wherever there is a need. This will decide what responsibilities should be taken up by whom and how well they can handle the same.

Accountable: This is also known as an approver. This is the final approving authority. This is also one of the most important elements of the RACI Matrix. The one that is finally answerable for the right and complete finishing of the work or the task, the one who makes it sure the fundamentals of the task meet the requirements well. In some other language, an accountable is required to approve with that is given by the responsible. Also, there will be one accountable appointed for every task or the work.

RACI Matrix

Related: Data presentation and analysis, Cluster Analysis

Consulted: Sometimes this is also called as a counselor or the consultant. This is also one of the most important factors of the RACI Matrix. This is about those whose points are hunted, commonly the matter experts and with who the interaction is from both the sides.

Informed: They also call this Informee. Those who are in line with the progress, generally on the finishing of the task or the work, and with whom there is communication in only one way. Generally, the role that is given for a task may be also answerable for getting it done. This is also marked on the matrix by the work or the task of having a responsibility for it. Outside this concession, it is generally said that each of the responsibility in the process or the project can get at least one of the sort of participation. Where above one participation sort is represented, this generally indicates that the participation has not just completely done and this can encumber the value of the mechanism in making the role very clear.

Role difference

There is a lot of difference between the role and separately identified people. A role is an interpreter of a linked set of work tasks that may be done by many people at a time. A single person can work on different roles at a time.  Just to take an example, there may be a company with a good team of people and there are ten people who can perform the role of a senior project manager, though technically each and every project has only one manager at one time, and a person who is capable of performing the role well may also be capable to perform the role of tester.

The delegation of duties to people

This matrix is normally made up using a vertical axis that is on the left-hand side column of the given tasks. This is taken from a broken structure. There is also a horizontal axis of the roles that are taken from the organization task. This has to be checked carefully.

RACI matrix helps to communicate explicitly on a project. RACI describes who is responsible, accountable, must be consulted with and could stay informed. Responsible for who should complete the task. Accountable for who should take action and decision on the task. Consulting who will be communicating with related project decisions and tasks. Informing that who will be updated on project decisions and activities during the project.

RACI chart is a definitive matrix of all the actions undertaken in a company against all the roles. At each of the activity intersection and the role, an assignment is possible. Work can be assigned to a dependable and experienced person. You may hear such types of expressions in a company

  • My senior is against my decisions
  • The approval process takes so much of time
  • I am only held responsible for everything in the company.
  • There is no good team spirit among the team members.

Needs to use RACI Matrix

Only one accountable need for one task. If there is more than one person for accountable it doesn’t work.  Do not make decisions and actions individually on the project. Select good one for responsible. Do not give the same task to many people. It seems like a waste of time. Make sure that everyone has a task. If the given project is simple and quickly finishable, then give that task responsibly. Responsible can handle accounts for simple tasks.

Having too many consults will delay the time of task completion. Don’t consult with various people before completing the task. Make new ideas to complete the task. Get an update from people about the task. This may avoid consulting with more people. Make sure that people are there for informing updates. Otherwise, you should have a problem with communicating.

RACI Matrix- Uses

RACI matrix is a very useful and effective concept. This is very good for the workload check. An overload of the work can be easily tracked down. This is also very useful for the reorganization. This is helping to make sure about the main functions and the processes as well. This will also help to analyze the employee turnover. The new people can easily and fast know about their roles. This will also be helpful while assigning duties to the people in a group. The main use of the term is done in the Conflict Resolution. If there is any conflict in a company then this is a nice place to discuss and sort out issues. This platform will help to solve the issues with great ease.

RACI Matrix Template

You need to generate a matrix along with the roles. The roles have to be set at the top and the tasks will be there on the left side. When the analysis will be performed and the RACI matrix is done, any obscurities have to be solved. There will be a review of the matrix and there will be a few questions to answer. They will be based on data pattern. To do this you need to proceed by the way of vertical axes and then the horizontal ones.

Vertical Analysis: There are no empty spaces. Is there a need to involve in many actions? This will be checked in this type of analysis. There will be no use of R and A. the role of the functions should be removed. This will also check if there is a proper distribution of the duties or not. This will also tell you if other groups should be held responsible for a few of these activities in order to make sure the balances. This is the main point of this process. This will also check the level of the candidate and you will come to know of the person is as per the needs of that role or not.

Horizontal Analysis: There are no R’s in this type of analysis. This will decide who is doing what job. The roles will be approved well. This will also decide who will take up the maximum roles. There will be a person who will be answerable for the things those are taking place. There can also be confusion as every responsible person feels that he is eight and his decision should be taken into consideration. The process of this analysis can take a turn and be a little bit slow when the activity is taking place or the process may be out of the fashion.

This will also tell you which role needs a consultation and which does not. There may be some good benefits in making consultation of these roles. This will also check if this is just all about the including the bases. This will also check if all the roles have to be normally informed or only for the exceptions? If there are many in the line then the process will be slowed down. If there are too many people included then again the process will be slow.

How to work with RACI

Identify the function and process of an organization or department. And fix a work for employers Avoid unnecessary activities like attending meetings. Distribute the work with suitable verbs such as collect, monitor, determine, record, publish, authorize, schedule, approve, prepare, inspect, report, operate, update, review and conduct.

These words are more helpful to identify the work. When the word is judgmental like evaluate, review, inspect and monitor, that verbs should be created as phrases to clearly mention the work. For example, monitor manufacturing materials. Inspect the products, evaluate the product quality.

In a short time, the decisions and actives are made to the workers. Don’t get another task before finishing the current task. Create a matrix table as roles in the top and tasks in the down. Each cell should be filled with RACI code. Doubts are clarified after the process completion.

To use the RACI model, first of all, create every task as the list, then the select person for a various task such as responsible, accountable, consulted and informed.

How to use RACI Table

The following procedures are used to create RACI table:

  • Identify what work to be done including all extra activities. Some decisions are taken during the project. Write that type of decisions on the left- hand side of the table, also it should be placed in down.
  • Roles and participants of the project will be writing down on the top of the table.
  • Every cell of the table should be filled with RACI code when the task is completed. It based on everyone’s roles as it related to a specific task.
  • Determine who is responsible for every task and who is accountable also appoint a person to be consulted and a person should inform updates about tasks.
  • Clarify it and make sure that each person has at least one task and responsibility is there for the task. Also, check that tasks are distributed evenly.
  • The person who is responsible for nothing should be compared to a person who is responsible for the task.
  • Once again check the table. And clarify that each task has one accountable because a task has more than one account will make the task to conflict.
  • Finally, share and consult the matrix with team members. Do this share before starting the project. All members are to be informed about its final version.

Example of RACI Matrix

Explaining with example will be easy to understand about RACI. Let’s understand RACI through a simple example. Ram is improving software feature H that H will be integrated by G and it was developed by Jessie. Dev is the marketing manager, and Joe is in the marketing field. Ram is responsible for software feature H. Dev is accountable. He should maintain accounts. Jessie should consult with Ram. Her feature development should be discussed with Ram. The task information will be informed by Joe. He will inform when the task is complete.

USES OF RACI:

  • It improves the company’s growth.
  • It informs about workers in the company.
  • Every employee’s workload and their role will be identified by RACI.
  • It helps to distribute the work evenly.
  • The organization will know about an employee’s work. In that way, the company will know anyone has too many work responsibilities.
  • It helps to complete the project successfully and make more product.
  • Decreases the miscommunication level and increases the productivity level.
  • If any tasks are in completed RACI tells you about who was responsible for that incomplete work.
  • It saves our time.
  • RACI makes the work easier.
  • RACI makes the role conception, role behavior, and role expectation.

Advantages of using RACI Matrix

RACI matrix rectifies the error during the project. Clarify about everyone’s roles and responsibilities. Determine each activity for team members, it finds duplicate projects and ignores them. It works with training employee. It reduces the disappointment with the organization.

When using RACI, it helps to work the employee with the stress-free mind. The employers need not to worry about anything. It helps to avoid unnecessary meetings. People who should attend their meeting should be clarified. It was determined by their roles. Only important persons should attend the meeting. It was very useful to save the time.

The disadvantage of using the RACI matrix is it does not define the communication relationship with stakeholders. While it defining the roles it does not clarify their actions. But it is necessary for the project. Team members could not find their work easily.

Creating & Implementing RACI matrix

Implementation of the RACI matrix to the organization will cause to get good success. It only works effectively when it was taken from hypothetical to practical. RACI matrix also called as “assigned responsibility matrix”. Google will help to create a RACI matrix, through the search with Google can help us to create RACI matrix. Generally RACI models are created many useful spreadsheet tools like Excel. Different roles or departments are listed horizontally and some key projects are listed vertically in the table. Many people use RACI for their business management.

RACI Matrix Templates

To start using RACI matrix, you need to build your own template based on how you plan to use it. This is so because of the different nature of the requirement of the team and work division. But if you are in need of a ready made template which you can put to use right away then there are many platforms available where you can get such RACI Matrix templates. Depending on the complexity and the requirements, you may opt for a free template to get started and as the requirement gets complex you can look forward to paid options. Most of the templates which you will find will be built on excel as they are easy to use and excel is already widely used all over the world. One of such platform to find a RACI Matrix template is Vertex42 & TemplateTab.

Also Read: Root Cause Analysis as a problem solving technique

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