What is a RACI chart used for?

When you are the team manager and the company finally assign you some particularly important task, the confusion rises. Which role should be for whom? Which role is suitable for a particular person? Etc. The position will be incredibly stressful, and the team manager is responsible and accountable for everything the team members do.

The need to have a proper tool to avoid this confusion is essential because, without the appropriate tool, there can be a lot of confusion and unnecessary work overlap can occur, and this overlapping of work is a severe matter. It can lead to a delay in the completion of the work and creates more confusion. RACI Chart helps you to split the work among the team members, and each person can be accountable to the team member. It avoids unnecessary tasks, confusion, and overlapping. Let’s dig deep what is a RACI chart used for.

The Definition of RACI Chart

RACI chart, or RACI matrix, is a tool that an organization uses to assign roles and responsibilities to each team member of a specific team. It allows you to avoid confusion regarding certain roles and responsibilities. It helps you to avoid overlapping of roles, reduce the delay of work, and to identify the perfect person for each.

What does RACI stand for?

R- Responsible: This is the real person who does the task. This person is responsible for the task he/she has to perform. Individuals must perform the assigned task, and they are responsible for anything regarding that task. The person above the responsible party will assign the individual or the party with the responsibility. The assigned ones will be responsible for what they do.

A- Accountable: This is the person who is accountable if the task isn’t complete in a satisfactory manner. The duty of this person also includes checking off the work done by the responsible person. This person should be an individual and not a party. In most of the cases, this person is the Project executive or the project sponsor. This person delegates the work and is also the one who will review the work before sending it ready to deliver. You have to make sure to choose the right person for this job.

C- Consult: This is where you will get all the information required for the project. It will occur in two-way communication. This person resolves the problems and also makes changes if needed for the project and can be an individual or a party. Consultation helps in the final review of the project. If there are any changes required, they will do the same.

I- Informed: This is the person to whom you should inform about the status of the work. Here, only one-way communication occurs. It can also be a party or an individual. They don’t need to give feedback. They need to stay up to date regarding the project.

What are the uses of RACI Chart?

Humans are the main resource a company has. All of them are different and might have different interests. They have a different point of expertise. The RACI Chart is to match the perfect person for the perfect role they can perform. Of course, the RACI chart’s primary function is to connect the right people to the right task. It helps the company to finish the task within the required time. It is a very efficient way to organize the resources required for a project. It is a quick and very efficient manner to describe the connections and roles for each person.

A lot of complications like delayed work, overlapping of work, doing unnecessary work, a lot of other confusion, and dramas. The solution to these problems is a RACI Chart. If you use a RACI chart, you can get clear cut clarity of what you should do and whom you should approach. Hence you can avoid the blame game because it clearly states every role, and it is an easy way to find the inconsistencies in the projects. Delegation means distributing the work to get it done from the superior to the junior. For example, when the boss assigns a newbie employee some work. The delegation also becomes easy with the help of the RACI chart.

How can you create a RACI Chart?

There are a few steps to create a RACI chart. These steps are pretty simple too.

Step one: Identify the complete tasks required for the completion of the project. You must list them on a piece of paper.

Step Two: Now, you should identify the project leader or stakeholders, and you must add them to the list. It must include:

• Your superiors: Like project sponsors.
• Your project immediate team members
• Other Project members
• Relevant stakeholders who are not there in the project and third-parties

For each task

• Mark out the ones who need to be the accountable ones as ‘A.’ They must be accountable for the completion of the work.
• Mark out the ones who need to be responsible ones as ‘R.’
• Mark out the ones who need to consult ones as ‘C.’
• Mark out the ones who need to be the ones who you should inform as ‘I.’

Step 3: Now distribute this piece of paper to all the stakeholders explaining everything and ask them for feedback.

Step 4: Update the RACI list according to the stakeholders’ feedback and finally sign it off as complete.

Benefits of a RACI chart.

Here are some of the benefits of the RACI chart.

• It makes the roles and responsibilities clear and reduces confusion: When you use a RACI chart, it is very easy to understand who does what. It creates very little confusion and makes smooth functioning. When confusions are less, it creates less delay, and the work gets done soon.
• Everyone is accountable: When you assign work to someone, they are accountable for it, and they cannot play the blame game as the RACI Chart clearly states about his/her roles and duties.
• It gives a chance to determine the workload: If a person can’t handle the pressure of too much work assigned to him, with the help of the RACI Chart, you can reassign it easily.
• Smooth flow of work: As the confusion reduces, the communication between the workers will be easy. Team Members can consult each other if they want when they face a problem. Thus, the work is easily completed within some time.
• New members are the same as the rest of the members: Some people do not give any much importance to the new members. But with the help of the RACI Chart, the old members and the new members will have the same importance.
• Reduces overlap and unnecessary works: When the work clearly states what they should do, the reduction of unnecessary work happens along with the reduction of overlapping.

Rules to be followed:

For the RACI Chart to work properly, you should follow some rules

They are:

• Make sure that each task should have at least one Responsible person.
• There must be one and only one accountable party assigned to each task for clear decision making. If there is more than one accountable party for a task, confusions can occur.
• For the right functioning of a team, there must be the right number of Responsible ones, the right amount of accountable ones, the right amount of consulting, and the right amount of informing ones. There must be no overcrowding in a team.
• Each Team member must have a role of their own for each task. And you must be well-informed regarding your role and about what you should do.
• The consulting and informed ones must have an easy-way connection with you. You should inform them regarding everything.
• You must make sure that your project plan is available so that they can follow progress along the way.
• Always make sure that the RACI Chart is simple and easily readable by all. No confusion must arise from the RACI Chart.