Among any project, there is a very important thing before starting it, which is allocating the responsibilities on tasks.
Without clearly assigning it, it might cause disasters in the middle of the project.
And a RACI Chart or a Responsibility Assignment Matrix is a tool to solve this problem.
What is a RACI Chart?
A RACI Chart is a chart that records the responsibilities of each member on tasks.
It is usually presented as a matrix.
RACI, are stand for
R = Responsible (also recommender)
A = Accountable (also approver or final approving authority)
C = Consulted (sometimes consultant or counsel)
I = Informed (also informee)
And there are a lot of variations.
Why use a RACI Chart?
Having a clear role allocation for everyone in the team is the main key to the project's success.
Without clear allocation, tasks could be omitted by the team, and there may be confusion on accountability, low-quality task result, or even fighting over responsibility.
What are the possible confusions or conflicts that can be solved by a RACI Chart?
There would be a lot of different circumstances according to the project's nature and the culture. However, there are a few very common ones that the RACI Chart can solve.
Confusion about responsibility on a task - this could lead to no one working on the task, or more than one person working on the same thing without letting each other know it.
Confusion about accountability on a task - could lead to the person who is working on it asking the wrong person about every detail of the task.
Whereas, this could also lead to the person working on it did not seek approval or advice because he/she does not know who is accountable for the task.
In some cultures or circumstances, this could also lead to someone would pretend they have accountability for the tasks and taking over the power of ordering those working on the task.
Lack of consultation and advice - this could lead to low-quality task results, especially if an inexperienced member handles the task. Because he/she does not know who can be consulted while encountering problems. Moreover, in some technical tasks, there must be a professional consultant to instruct about the tasks.
How to use the RACI Chart?
The RACI Chart needed to be ready before the actual work started, although it can be amended during the project running according to the situation.
Besides, there must be only one accountable person for each task. This prevents confusion and potential crisis.
Moreover, it is usually better to write the exact name of the chart rather than the job title, because quite often there would be more than one person with the same title working on the same project.
Who should use the RACI Chart?
Basically, every project can apply a RACI Chart.
It is almost always beneficial to the project to make the responsibility clear.
It is even much more important if the team is a relatively inexperienced one.
Moreover, the RACI Chart is also a method to raise the sense of ownership of a task, which could benefit the work if it is used correctly.
Any other benefit of the RACI Chart?
A RACI Chart is also a visualisation of the task allocation, which could have an easier observation if there is any unreasonable allocation.
The team could also review and give comments on the allocation.
And also as mentioned above, the RACI Chart is also a method to raise the sense of ownership of a task, which could benefit the work if it is used correctly.
Any disadvantages of a RACI Chart?
There is not a lot of information that could be displayed on the RACI Chart. Such as time and progress of the tasks, which means one must use other tools at the same time such as a Gantt Chart or a Kanban Board.
Since some of these other tools also have the responsibility display function, the project manager must ensure the allocation is the same across different tools, otherwise, it would cause a lot of conflicts and confusion.
Moreover, the standard RACI Chart allocates only one person for each responsibility of each task, but in reality, some tasks require more than one person to do it, and cannot be further broken down. The project manager and the team need to communicate more clearly to avoid confusion in these situations.
Besides, during long projects, it is unavoidable that people leave in the middle, which may cause some of the positions on the RACI Chart would be empty.
A RACI Chart is easy to build, easy to understand, and enough flexible. A project manager should build a RACI Chart for every project to ensure a smooth running of it.
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