How [& Why] To Implement The Raci Matrix

Special thanks to Brett Knowles, Chief Executive Officer at Hirebook, for his insight on this topic.

Many organizations know the general idea of RACI but can’t say exactly how it’s used. Here’s a simple definition:

The RACI Model—which is often made visible through a RACI Matrix—is a tool organizations use to align employees (or employee roles) to a company-wide project or process in an effort to make the project or process run smoothly. The RACI acronym stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed, though some organizations also include Support (which forms the RASCI Model). These roles must be assigned to specific team members in order for a project or process to be accomplished.

In short, RACI helps organizations prioritize team members’ actions, so everyone knows precisely what they’re responsible for.

What Does RACI Stand For?

Below we'll break down the RACI acronym and give you an example of how it works in practice:

Responsible

Who is responsible for the work on a particular element of the project or process?

Consider a fast food company with a drive-through window. Among all of the restaurant’s processes, you need to identify one or more people responsible for serving food through the drive-through. These employees are your “Rs”.

Accountable

Who is accountable for the process or project working well?

If an operational issue with the drive-through arises, it isn’t the job of the employee at the window to fix it. It falls to someone higher up who likely helped create the process, in this example perhaps a manager. The person accountable has ultimate authority over the project, so as a best practice, assign only one “A” to a given project or process.

Consulted

Who needs to be consulted if there is a problem with this process?

When a project or process needs to change, you should know who to consult to resolve the issue without making it worse. In our hypothetical drive-through restaurant, a “C” might be someone in the Health and Safety department who can explain how long food can sit out before it has to be thrown away.

Informed

Who must stay informed about a project if a change has been made?

If any changes are made during a project or process, the “Is” need to be informed. They don’t necessarily give feedback, but they do need to stay up to date as the process runs. For example, the training department needs to know if any changes are made so they can update the documentation and processes for the next shift or the next restaurant.

Support (Optional)

Who needs to provide support in order for a project or process to be successful?

Assigning “S” roles is optional. If you do, these people can come from various departments and are needed for certain parts of a process or project. For example, the drive-through model might need support from the financial department to ensure the cash register is stocked with the right bill denominations and coins at the beginning of the day.

What are the benefits of the RACI model?

1. It enables employees to be more engaged.

When you define which RACI category each employee fits into, you reduce the confusion around typical projects and processes. Employees feel less stressed and more engaged in their roles, because they know exactly what they are responsible for and what they don’t need to worry about.

2. It assists with employee training.

Once you know who is assigned to each part of the RACI model, you can make sure employees in every category get the right training. Training is a waste of time unless employees are learning things that will add value to your business.

3. It decreases frustration with management.

If an employee isn’t sure how to escalate a problem, or whether to just fix it themselves, it creates frustration. With RACI roles assigned, every employee knows who to talk to about a process change or hang-up, and that eases frustration with management.

4. It helps save time in meetings.

Most of us have sat in a meeting and wondered, “Why am I here?” With the RACI model, you know who needs an invitation based on their role in the project or process, and you save the time of people who don’t need to be there.

5. It aligns with your organizational strategy.

The RACI model takes your organizational strategy down to the individual level, so every employee knows what they need to be doing to contribute to the company’s success. If you adjust your strategy, you can adjust your RACI model to match, so everyone in the company refocuses and heads in the same direction.

Creating & Implementing A RACI Matrix

Implementing the RACI model in your organization can lead to more successful projects and processes, but only when you take it from hypothetical to practical. The main way to do this is with a RACI matrix (also called an “assigned responsibility matrix”).

There are hundreds of ways to create a RACI matrix. Search the term on Google Images to see them. Most are built in a spreadsheet tool like Excel. Various roles or departments are listed horizontally, and the key projects (sometimes followed by milestones underneath) are listed vertically. Then you fill in each box in the grid with an R, A, C, or I.

The format of your RACI matrix template matters less than completing these three steps:

1. Start by identifying your strategic projects that require the RACI model.

First, identify five to seven key projects that are linked to your strategic objectives. For example, let’s say one of your projects is to implement new customer relationship management software. Each project will probably have three to five milestones (or key tasks). For our hypothetical CRM project, the milestones may be:

• Understand where all current customer information is stored (e.g. spreadsheets, software, departments, etc.)
• Design how the new software will flow through the organization, and how it interacts with different departments.
• Implement the new software and configure it accordingly.

Once you’ve gone through all 5-7 key projects, you’ll end up with about 35 items that need to have clear responsibility.

Based on this project, you’d then assign responsibility using the RACI model:

• R: Who’s responsible for implementing the new customer relationship management software? This might be someone in IT.
• A: Who’s accountable for the successful software rollout? This might be the head of marketing.
• C: Who needs to be consulted during the implementation process? This will likely include all employees who drive the software or processes where current customer information is stored.
• I: Who needs to be informed about the change? This includes anyone who logs into the current applications that manage customer relationships, so they know a change is coming.

2. Next, arrange a recurring meeting for everyone who will be held accountable for a project element.

Working from our previous example, your meetings should be attended by all the individuals identified as part of the RACI matrix for implementing the new software. The “informed” people might only need to attend one of these meetings, but everyone else should attend several. They’ll likely need to meet regularly to keep the group on track. Together, they also prepare an update for your monthly strategy review meetings.

3. Once RACI has been applied to key projects, apply the RACI model to your key processes as well.

RACI applies to processes as well as projects, and the steps are nearly identical (e.g. assigning out roles and ensuring stakeholders are meeting regularly). If you have a process improvement to make, like updating a 10-step process for onboarding a new customer, you may need to assign RACI accountability for each of those steps. If you are redesigning these steps, you’ll start with the project as a whole. This depends largely on the importance and depth of the process and should be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Before you move forward, heed these two cautions!

First: RACI should only be used for key strategic projects and processes, those that are critical to how your business operates or are undergoing some kind of change.

Overusing the RACI model gets overwhelming. You likely have a process (defined, or simply embedded in your organization’s culture) for virtually everything, from departmental procedures to cleaning the employee break room. Implementing the RACI model for something as trivial as the employee break room cleaning process is unnecessary. Apply RACI only with your high-value projects and processes and, if necessary, work down from there.

Our second caution is one you won’t read in many places:

The majority of RACI Matrix templates are useless.

Here’s why:

• Version control issues. If you use a RACI Matrix template you find online, and you make any kind of change (and you will), you have to make sure everyone with a copy of the RACI Matrix is informed. In practice that rarely happens, so two to three different versions of your matrix begin floating around your company, leaving you no better off than you were before implementing the RACI model.
• Lack of strategic alignment. We mentioned that one of the benefits of the RACI model is its simple alignment with your strategy. But if you’re managing your strategy with one tool and managing RACI with another, strategic alignment is much more difficult.

‍An all-in-one reporting tool avoids both issues. In one system, you can pull in data from multiple sources and align people to all of your projects and processes consistently.

See how ClearPoint would run your plan — book a demo

Pro Tip: It’s easy to over-engineer RACI—so focus on making it as simple as possible.

We’ve found that most businesses that struggle with the RACI model are overcomplicating it. One fix is to give yourself a limited window to put it in place. That forces you to focus on the most critical factors and keep it simple. If you have questions along the way, we’re happy to help.