Responsibility assignment matrix

Key responsibility roles (RACI model)

Responsible (also Recommender)

Those who do the work to achieve the task. There is at least one role with a participation type of responsible, although others can be delegated to assist in the work required (see also RASCI below for separately identifying those who participate in a supporting role).

Accountable (also Approver or final approving authority)

The one ultimately answerable for the correct and thorough completion of the deliverable or task, and the one who delegates the work to those responsible. In other words, an accountable must sign off (approve) work that responsible provides. There must be only one accountable specified for each task or deliverable.

Consulted (sometimes Consultant or counsel)

Those whose opinions are sought, typically subject matter experts; and with whom there is two-way communication.

Informed (also Informee)

Those who are kept up-to-date on progress, often only on completion of the task or deliverable; and with whom there is just one-way communication.

Very often the role that is accountable for a task or deliverable may also be responsible for completing it (indicated on the matrix by the task or deliverable having a role accountable for it, but no role responsible for its completion, i.e. it is implied). Outside of this exception, it is generally recommended that each role in the project or process for each task receive, at most, just one of the participation types. Where more than one participation type is shown, this generally implies that participation has not yet been fully resolved, which can impede the value of this technique in clarifying the participation of each role on each task.

Role distinction

There is a distinction between a role and individually identified people: a role is a descriptor of an associated set of tasks; may be performed by many people; and one person can perform many roles. For example, an organization may have ten people who can perform the role of project manager, although traditionally each project only has one project manager at any one time; and a person who is able to perform the role of project manager may also be able to perform the role of business analyst and tester.

The matrix is typically created with a vertical axis (left-hand column) of tasks (e.g., from a work breakdown structure WBS) or deliverables (e.g., from a product breakdown structure PBS), and a horizontal axis (top row) of roles (e.g., from an organizational chart) – as illustrated in the image of an example responsibility assignment (or RACI) matrix.

Another example from the maintenance and reliability community

Alternatives

There are a number of alternatives to the RACI participation types:

PARIS

This is an early version of a Responsibility Assignment Matrix, with the roles defined as:

PACSI

This is a version very useful to organizations where the output of activities under the accountability of a single person/function can be reviewed and vetoed by multiple stakeholders, due to the collaborative nature of the culture.

RASCI

This is an expanded version of the standard RACI, less frequently known as RASCI, breaking the responsible participation into:

RASI

This is an alternative version of the standard RACI, foregoing the consulted participation and replacing it with:

RACIQ

This is an expanded version of the standard RACI, with an additional participation type:

RACI-VS

This is an expanded version of the standard RACI, with two additional participation types:

CAIRO

This is an expanded version, of the standard RACI, also known as RACIO with one additional participation type.

DACI

Another version that has been used to centralize decision making, and clarify who can re-open discussions.

RAPID

Another tool used to clarify decision roles and thereby improve decision making overall is RAPID^®, which was created by and is a registered trademark of Bain & Company.

RATSI

Another tool used in organisation design or roles analysis.

Variations

There are also a number of variations to the meaning of RACI participation types:

RACI (alternative scheme)

There is an alternative coding, less widely published but used by some practitioners and process mapping software, which modifies the application of the R and A codes of the original scheme. The overall methodology remains the same but this alternative avoids potential confusion of the terms accountable and responsible, which may be understood by management professionals but not always so clearly differentiated by others:

ARCI (decisions)

This alternative is focused only on documenting who has the authority to make which decisions. This can work across all sized work groups.