Plan and commit
RACI chart
Also called Responsibility assignment matrix
For each task or decision, agree who is responsible, who is accountable, who is consulted and who is informed.
- Time30 to 60 minutes
- People3 to 10 people
- Steps3
What it's for
Use it when a team keeps tripping over who decides what, or when several teams share one piece of work. The useful part is the arguing: two people who both thought they were accountable find out in the room rather than in a crisis.
Each row should have exactly one accountable person.
How to run it
List the work10 min
Tasks or decisions down the first column, one per note.
Fill the roles20 min
For each row, add names under R, A, C and I.
Check the rows10 min
One A per row. Too many Cs slows everything down. No R means nobody does it.
Tips
- Keep the notes for one task in a line across the columns, so each row reads left to right.
- Responsible does the work; accountable answers for it. They can be the same person.
Where it comes from
Responsibility matrices have been used in project management since at least the 1950s. The RACI form has no single known inventor.
Pairs well with
Stakeholder map
Place everyone affected by a project by how much power they have over it and how much they care, then plan how to work with each.
Who, what, when
Close a session by writing each action with one owner and a date, so decisions turn into work instead of good intentions.
Service blueprint
Map a service from the customer's actions down to the staff, systems and processes behind them that the customer never sees.