A great way to convey what the duties of every member of the team of a project are, a RACI chart is a visual presentation that represents all the project responsibilities. Within the project organization chart, every task gets allotted to every member of the project based on the four responsibility levels in a RACI chart. 

For project management, the RACI matrix is undoubtedly a great instrument in the project manager array. It lessens the task-related or job vagueness in between the team members. It straightly elaborates on the level of responsibilities, who should report whom, ownership, when to exercise decision and when to include a project manager. So, if you’re discovering the best ways to make use of the RACI matrix for your project management, then you need to read ahead. 

Below listed are the four responsibility levels: 

Responsible 

This role comes in the hands of members of the project and their main area of responsibility. The role comes under their daily responsibilities and specialization. They need to make sure that work completes within the deadline, and the standard level of deliverables is up to the mark and acceptable. Commonly, this is that team who does the technical work. The managers of the project generally have project management and administrative works that come under their job description, and the project sponsors mostly have to endorse the expenditures of the project. The group works for the tasks with the alliance of accountable other people (A). In short, a ‘Responsible’ is one who does the task or executes an activity. 

Accountable 

Even this group of people hasn’t directly done the task, but they are accountable for the work’s results. This group is accountable for the quality of deliverables, task execution, and any distinct success strategy. They frequently get credit for any success or failure of the work, and their job performance also relies on this factor only. It incorporates people who approve or review the deliverables. Also, they need to be well-known with all the technical information of the task as it will express on them. In short, this is a person who is accountable and has No/Yes/Veto. 

Consulted 

All the members of the group require to get consulted. It implies that they desire to offer input into the activity. They have resources or knowledge that requires including in the work deliverables of activity. Within a reasonable time and as per their priorities and schedules, they need to get consulted. In short, this is a person who requires feedback and helps with the task.

Informed 

It is the group of people who needs to know the outcomes of the work. They don’t have any involvement in the project despite getting the deliverables and just get acknowledged by the outcomes. In short, this is a person who requires being aware of any action or decision. 

Rules for RACI Charts 

There isn’t any doubt in accepting that the chart is open to different plans that make the project succeed. Still, there are some general rules – 

1. There needs to be one or more than one responsible (R) person on every row. There is no one having any task if there isn’t any R on the row. 
2. Then, there is also a need of one or more than one accountable (R) person on every row for project management. It is usually the same person for smaller projects and labeled as R/A. It can also get prompted within a project that there are infrequent conditions without having any accountable person for an activity. However, in such conditions, you may need to incorporate other people within the RACI chart who can cover the accountability gap. 
3. There should be less number of R’s in every row. If possible, it needs to be only one for small projects. If there is more than one, then it implies that various persons are doing the same work at the same level. It can work for large projects; however, listing several members in the accountable category is generally more productive from the management factor for small projects. 

RAM or Responsibility Assignment Matrix 

The RACI chart or RAM are the same things.

How to establish a RACI chart?

With the help of MS Excel, RACI charts are very rapid and easy to create for project management. It would take hardly 10 minutes. Go ahead –

• Open MS Excel
• On the left column, enter the project tasks
• Just along the top row, enter the project members within the organizational project chart.
• List the letters R, A, C, and I as needed into the middleboxes. 

Pros of RACI Chart – 

For any project management, RACI Chart brings you a lot of benefits –

1. Lists transparent prospects 

The RACI Chart assists the project managers to set exact opportunities for the entire team and distinct project tasks. Members of the projects know their authorities for decision-making, deliverables, and roles that they need to generate. They all are familiar with the factors – 

• Who will perform the task
• Who will give the green light to the final result
• Who will support the task for every work

2. Brings collaboration 

The entire team knows theirs’ and other’s roles in the RACI chart. It assists the members of the team to know their dependence on each other to deliver a project. Hence, this motivates them to cooperate and perform with each other to provide results. 

3. Builds up communication 

Recognize the appropriate, limited, and professional people for consultation lessens the time consumption in a great number of approvals. The consultants always work together with the responsible members of the team, assisting them in finishing their roles in time. Not only this, but RACI also makes sure communication regarding the status of the work to the entire team in the enlightened role. 

Fewer chances of task overload

One can proclaim that if there are a lot of tasks for a project allotted to any person in RACI mapping, it allows the opportunity to monitor the work overload for any particular resource later. So, in this scenario, the RACI chart can go for consideration again to check if some tasks can get assigned to any other less busy discrete in the resource pool. 

Final words 

RACI charts display the project resources allocated to every work package. They elaborate on the associations between project members and tasks. They are an efficient way to convey the roles and responsibilities to project managers in project management. 

RACI charts are mostly, but not always, created by the project manager to make sure all the people are familiar with their duties.