There is no doubt that complex projects are cumbersome and that it can be difficult for the project manager and the team to keep track of all the different tasks. Confusion can arise even with a well-thought-out project plan and a great team behind the plan. The project team will slowly become demotivated if you do not delegate roles and responsibilities as a project manager.

However, there is a good tool one can use for delegating roles and responsibilities to avoid this particular problem. It is known as the RACI model, and in this note, I will explain what the RACI model is and what you can achieve by using it in your project.

The RACI tool is a simple matrix that you can use to delegate roles and responsibilities for every task, milestone, or decision on a project. The project manager can eliminate confusion and ensure that everyone knows what to do by clarifying which roles and where the responsibility lies on each project task.

RACI is an English abbreviation for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. Each letter of the acronym represents a level of task responsibility.

RACI Definitions:

Responsible:

The person written here does the actual work to complete the task. Every single task must have at least one person responsible, but there can easily be more than one.

Accountable:

The person under accountable delegates the work and is the last to review the task before it is approved and finished. For some tasks, it may be that it is a person from Responsible who also acts as Accountable. It’s just important to have only one accountable person for each task.

Consulted:

Usually, the outcome of project tasks is improved if somebody else reviews the task. The persons registered under consulted are ready for consultation and will continuously give input on how something will affect future project work.

Informed:

The team members must be informed about the project’s progress and not only told some details.

Now you know what a RACI model is, the idea behind using it, and the four levels of responsibility in the RACI model. The primary advantage of using the RACI model is that it helps the project manager set clear expectations for themselves and the team around the project about roles and responsibilities. Using this simple but effective model, the project manager avoids different people working on the same task or working against each other – just because roles and responsibilities are not well defined at the beginning of the project.

Example of a RACI