THE GUIDE
RACI chart: what it is, with a free template and examples
A RACI chart (also called a RACI matrix or responsibility assignment matrix) lists the tasks or decisions in a project down one side and the people across the top. Each box says whether that person is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted or Informed. It takes 15 minutes to make and saves weeks of “I thought you were doing that”.
What R, A, C and I mean
- Responsible: does the work. There can be more than one.
- Accountable: owns the result and signs it off. Exactly one person per task, or nobody really owns it.
- Consulted: asked for input before the work is done. It’s a two-way conversation.
- Informed: told about progress or the outcome afterwards. One-way.
The rules the checker uses
- Every task has exactly one A.
- Someone does the work: an R, or the A doing it themselves (common on small teams).
- Watch out for long lists of Cs. Each one is a person who can slow the work down.
- If one person is R or A on most tasks, they’re a bottleneck. Delegate.
- If someone has only Cs and Is, ask whether they need to be on the chart at all.
RACI example: a website relaunch
- Agree goals and budget
Manager A, Project lead R, Designer and Developer C
- Design the first version
Designer R, Project lead A, Developer C
- Build and test
Developer R, Project lead A, Designer C
- Launch and tell customers
Project lead R, Manager A, everyone else I
Frequently asked questions
Yes, on small teams it’s common. In this tool, mark them A; if nobody is marked R, it’s understood the A does the work themselves.
Consulted people give input before or during the work, so you wait for them. Informed people just hear about it afterwards, so you don’t.
At the start of a project with more than three people, when two teams share work, after a reorganisation, or whenever the same thing keeps falling through the cracks.
Yes. Sign in, create an edit link and send it to the team. Changes merge, so several people can edit at once. You can also download it as a CSV for Excel or Google Sheets, or as a PDF.
One-minute lessons on this
TOPIC 08The delegation mistake that keeps you overloaded
TOPIC 11Why missed deadlines may come from unclear priorities
TOPIC 37When every decision has to go through you
TOPIC 44Why being the only one who knows how isn’t job security
TOPIC 15The missing “why” behind the tasks you hand off
TOPIC 35