What is a RACI Chart, and How Do I Use It on Real Projects?

A RACI chart, or RACI matrix, is a tool used in project management to track the people involved or invested in your project (your "stakeholders"), and particularly what is expected of each person and when they need information. It’s a term you’ll likely come across while studying for your PMP or another project management certification, and you might see it in a test question. You may also find a RACI chart in a project plan.

Standard Definitions from PMI

The PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition defines a RACI chart as:

"A common type of responsibility assignment matrix that uses responsible, accountable, consult, and inform statuses to define the involvement of stakeholders in project activities."

The PMBOK® Guide – Seventh Edition (the latest edition) places less emphasis on a RACI chart specifically, instead highlighting a responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) as a type of project tool, defining it this way:

"This matrix is a grid that shows the project resources assigned to each work package. A RACI chart is a common way of showing stakeholders who are responsible, accountable, consulted, or informed and are associated with project activities, decisions, and deliverables."

Breaking Down the Components

So RACI chart or RAM, what are we talking about here? This is a chart, a grid, a table, or a spreadsheet. People (individually or in groups) go on one axis. Elements of the project go on the other axis—these could be tasks, but as the PMBOK® Guide – Seventh Edition indicates, they could also be decisions or deliverables. And in the body of the chart, boxes are filled in with a word or abbreviation to indicate the relationship between each person and each project element.

If you are using a RACI chart, that means you’re specifically filling in the boxes with the categories "responsible, accountable, consult, and inform,” represented by the acronym RACI. Here's what those categories mean (these are my own practical definitions):

• Responsible: The primary person who needs to act on this item. If it is a task, it would be the person assigned to do the task.
• Accountable: The primary person who needs to ensure this item is completed to satisfaction—BUT they are not the one doing it unless they are ALSO responsible. If this is a task, it might be the boss of whoever is responsible. Alternatively, it might be a person who owns the project or some part of the project.
• Consult: Often this is somebody with expertise in the area at hand. You consult them because you want their opinion or input, but they don't make any decisions about the item.
• Inform: These people just need to receive updates. Is the item complete? What progress has been made? What decisions have been made? They might need the information to do their jobs, or they might just be interested, but they don't get any say in what happens with this item.

Reading a RACI Chart

Let’s look at an example. Say an ad agency is developing a video ad for a client. A marketer is working directly with the client, with the oversight of the head of marketing (their boss). After the marketer develops a concept for the video and the head of marketing is happy with the concept, it gets passed to a copywriter to write the script. The marketer and videographer both give input on the script to make sure it will meet the client’s needs and will translate well to film. Then the videographer films and edits the video, with the oversight of the head of video. Finally, the marketer sends the final video to the client.

Here's how those roles and responsibilities might look in a RACI chart:

In this scenario, you can see the head of marketing is “accountable” to make sure the marketer’s tasks get done, and the head of video is “accountable” to make sure the videographer’s tasks get done.

Note that some boxes are empty because some people have no role at all at some steps. It is also possible to put more than one letter/category in a box; for example, there could be a scenario where someone is both responsible and accountable.

What makes something a RAM, but not a RACI chart? It just means your categories are something other than "responsible, accountable, consult, and inform”—either another set of categories established by someone else, or something made up for your project or company. It is appropriate that the PMBOK® Guide – Seventh Edition emphasizes a RAM over a RACI chart because the international community of project managers is realizing more and more how important it is to tailor tools like this to the needs of the project. You should be able to use any categories that are a good fit for your situation.

That being said, if you've never used a RAM, the categories "responsible, accountable, consult, and inform" are great ones to start with.

Using a RACI Chart or RAM on Real Projects

I find the greatest practical value of a RACI chart or RAM is to clarify roles. Role clarity is a major factor that either makes projects run smoothly when present, or quickly stalls or derails them when absent or incomplete.

If you have a different way to clarify roles, you may not need a RAM for your project. But as a project manager, I find the categories "responsible, accountable, consult, and inform” really sharpen my thinking about when and how to communicate with each stakeholder or team member in ways that fit their role.

On a large project with many stakeholders or many groups of stakeholders, when a project requires communication with the public, or in another scenario where communications need advance preparation (for example, producing a video message or crafting a letter that needs many internal approvals), I would very likely create a RACI chart to help plan and shape these communications.

On smaller or internal-only projects, I don’t create RACI charts, BUT I am always thinking in terms of "responsible, accountable, consult, and inform” as I create off-the-cuff communications (meetings, emails, instant messages, etc). This mental framework leads me to decisions like:

• Communicating with responsible people regularly and in detail.
• Communicating with accountable people about major milestones or problems only.
• Phrasing a request carefully to ensure “consulted” people know we only want input: “Jenny is developing X, and she wants to hear your perspective as an expert in Y before she finalizes things.”
• Using a tone of finality in communications that inform people. Questions may be invited, but there should be no illusion that recipients can influence or change the decision.

Also, I would be cautious about sharing a written RACI chart unless everybody has a clear understanding of their role before seeing it. Otherwise it can come across harshly if somebody sees a C or an I next to their name when they were hoping to play a greater role. This is another reason to consider making these calculations in your head, or keeping a private RACI chart for yourself, rather than putting it in a project plan or another public place. But this will depend a lot on company culture, and you know yours best!

I hope, even beyond the PMP exam, you now have a practical grasp of responsibility assignment matrices and RACI charts, and can use these tools and the philosophy behind them to create clarity and order on your projects.