How to use RACI charts for improved project ownership and team collaboration

What is a RACI chart?

A RACI chart delineates roles among team members across a given project: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed.

A RACI chart is also known as a responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) or project assignment matrix (PAM). RACI is a simple table that goes a long way in identifying who should be doing what in a project or campaign. 

Using project management frameworks like the RACI model, you can build a workflow where everyone has input and ownership from start to finish.

Understanding the RACI Model

When should you use a RACI Matrix? Don’t feel pressured to establish RACI on everyday tasks, like checking emails or answering customer calls. But when a project has invested stakeholders and the potential for long-term impact, like improving an app user interface or launching a new product, the RACI chart can keep you in line from the get-go.

Let’s dive into the four roles of the RACI matrix: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed.

Responsible: Performing the tasks

The “R” in your model takes the role of Performer. The responsible individual is delegated a responsibility, like “design home page wireframe,” from the accountable person, and must complete that responsibility within agreed-upon parameters and an agreed-upon deadline. You may have multiple responsible individuals for one task; make sure you balance this appropriately and make it clear exactly who should be doing what at each stage of the process.

Accountable: Overseeing the project

The “A” is the accountable individual whose job it is to ensure the task is completed by all the responsible members. Unlike responsibilities, accountabilities shouldn’t be relegated; keep this assignment to only one accountable individual who acts as the decision-maker and shepherd throughout the project, ensuring the task is completed to an acceptable standard.

Consulted: Providing information

The “C,” or consulted individual, is the knowledge-holder on the team. They’re available for help, extra context, and advice on the task. Let’s say you’re responsible for designing a wireframe. You may want to consult your website administrator to make sure you have full access to the content management system and won’t break anything with your new CSS ideas. 

The consulted individual will provide you with all the information and access you need before you proceed with the task. You might have one or up to three consulted individuals depending on a task and its complexity; identify who these people are early on so you can loop them into the project and its workflow.

Informed: Gets status updates

Your “I” is the informed approver or stakeholder who wants or needs information about your project’s project. The “I” can be many people, like a leadership team, or the department head who is delivering the project upward. This promotes internal transparency and also ensures two things: 1) recognition that the project is being completed on time and within expectations and 2) guarantees that the project gets approval and aligns with stakeholders’ intent.

Creating a RACI Chart

Now that we know what a RACI chart is and what it’s designed for, let’s build one together. Let’s say our project is building a web page for a new service line. Who handles what tasks along the line to project completion?

Step 1: Identify tasks and workload

What needs to be done along the way to our project goal? Let’s identify some core tasks in a project, such as launching a new website:

• Designing a homepage wireframe
• Creating graphic design and animations
• Identifying SEO keywords
• Setting up the domain and server
• Writing homepage copy

Within those main tasks, you may have smaller subtasks to perform, like approving wireframes or setting up billing info for the domain host. Work with your team to identify those subtasks so no surprises come up along the way that may interfere with your workflow and delay the deliverables.

Step 2: Identify roles

Your graphic designer isn’t going to be doing SEO keyword research, and your copywriter won’t be setting up your domain host. Sit down with your team and have a collaborative conversation to identify those roles. For example, your graphic design task and subtasks may look like the following:

Building graphic design and animations — Ariel 

• Create website hero image — Natalie
• Review and approve website hero image — Tessa
• Animate hero image and convert to .mp4 file — Anji
• Place finalized hero image in wireframe — Ariel

Across all of these subtasks, Natalie and Anji are responsible for individual tasks that contribute to the goal of building design and animations. Tessa is consulted to review and approve the initial image and ensure it follows brand guidelines. Ariel is accountable for the other three’s work and ensuring the final product gets delivered to the wireframe.

Step 4: Analyze your chart and identify gaps

Have a working session with your team to identify any gaps or overlaps within the chart, both to prevent duplicative work and also to catch any roadblocks before they happen. Follow some general guidelines for what your RACI model should look like, from identifying gaps and overlaps to analyzing the balance between assignees.

You’ll see there will be some overlaps and dependencies across the chart — for example, Jenna, the SEO manager, needs to identify the SEO keywords for the homepage before Edwin can begin copywriting. So for Edwin’s task, Jenna is consulted, but for Jenna’s task, she is responsible.

You’ll also notice there is only one Accountable individual per task. Think of this person as a task-level “project lead” who drives the boat — you don’t want more than one captain steering at the same time. 

You should also find ways to limit the number of both Responsible and Consulted individuals. When you have too many Rs, it may not be clear who exactly should do what—and that’s how you end up with tasks that end up by the wayside because no one takes responsibility.

Too many Cs means too many cooks offering conflicting opinions and information; make sure your responsible individuals are getting one clear directive to guide them along the way. 

And having not enough Is is indicative that there isn’t enough upward communication or transparency happening within your organization. Be sure your leadership and stakeholders have full buy-in and understanding of the project so it gets approved and implemented without incident.

Using a RACI Chart in Confluence

Now that you understand the foundational best practices of using a RACI chart, it’s time to build one using Confluence. Implement your RACI matrix into your Confluence docs to improve project communication and accountability.

Here’s how to add a RACI matrix in Confluence:

1. Click "Insert" on the top toolbar and select "Table" from the dropdown menu.
2. In the table dialog box, select the number of rows and columns you need for your RACI chart. For example, if you want to create a RACI chart for a project with four tasks, you can create a table with five rows and five columns.
3. The first row should contain the headers for the RACI chart. You can use the following headers: Task, Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed
4. Start filling in the table with the appropriate information. For each task or activity, fill in the corresponding cell with the appropriate RACI code for each team member.
   1. Pro tip: use colors or symbols to make the chart easier to read. For example, you can use green for responsible, yellow for consulted, blue for informed, and red for accountable.

You can then use this table on any relevant project Confluence page, from Project Charters to Kick-Off Agendas to even adding the page as a Trello card or within a Jira issue. This will help ensure team members understand their roles and responsibilities, no matter which Atlassian tool they’re using. Encouraging communication and accountability will help improve team performance — all adding up to successful outcomes.

Advanced RACI Techniques in Confluence

Your RACI model may change and expand as your project progresses, so it’s important to keep your chart up to date. Here are some detailed best practices:

Review and Update Regularly

Review and update your RACI charts on a regular basis to ensure that they accurately reflect the current state of the project. Make sure roles are up-to-date, tasks are marked as completed, and dependencies are outlined. Use Confluence to set up a schedule to review and update the chart, and assign a responsible team member to oversee the process.

Include Team Members in the Process

Tag all team members who are involved in the project when you update the chart. That way, everyone is aware of any changes and can confirm they understand their roles and responsibilities. Use comments in Confluence or direct messages to asynchronously communicate updates and changes to team members.

Document Changes

Whenever changes are made to the RACI chart, they should be documented in Confluence. This can include the date of the change, who made the change, and the reason for the change. This documentation can help to ensure that everyone is aware of any changes and that they understand the reasoning behind them.

The consulted individual will provide you with all the information and access you need before you proceed with the task. You might have one or up to three consulted individuals depending on a task and its complexity; identify who these people are early on so you can loop them into the project and its workflow.

Keep it Simple

The RACI chart should be easy to understand and navigate. In Confluence, you can use visual aids, such as colors or symbols, to help make the chart more accessible. Additionally, the chart should be concise, focusing only on the most important tasks and responsibilities. Subtasks can be mapped out in Trello or Jira for better project tracking.

Review Roles and Responsibilities

When you make any updates, always review the roles and responsibilities of each team member. As you add or adjust tasks, your team can help to identify any gaps or overlaps in responsibilities. Use task management features in Confluence to assign tasks and responsibilities to team members, then delegate further in Trello or Jira. Additionally, team managers can run the Roles and Responsibilities Play with their teams to clarify individual responsibilities and find gaps that need to be filled.

Ensure Consistency

Now, make sure your charts and assignments are consistent. Establish clear guidelines for how the chart should be used and ensure that all team members are aware of these guidelines. Additionally, you can use marketplace add-ons, templates, or macros in Confluence to keep the chart consistent across different projects or teams.

Get to work

Once your chart is in place, you can get to the fun part of the project — the execution. Rest assured that your task list will flow easier with the proper roles and expectations in place, and be sure to keep the communication flowing as well. Use Confluence combined with your favorite communication apps to keep everyone updated on the status of each task, dependencies, and blockers that may come your way. And remember — not every process is perfect from the beginning. Keep building and iterating until you find a flow that works best for your team. Happy working!