RACI Chart is used to make the roles and responsibilities clear to all the stakeholders involved in a project. If the roles and responsibilities are unclear, then there is confusion within the organization on who is responsible for which activity, and hence, the activities do not get done or do not get done on time. There is no accountability without a clear RACI chart that all stakeholders know. Hence, the RACI chart helps the project function smoothly and should be one of the initial tasks that should be performed for any project that involves multiple stakeholders.
Inputs
This tool can be added to your active workbook by clicking on Change and then selecting RACI Chart.
Click on Analysis Setup to open the menu options for this tool.
Setup
A sample screenshot of the setup menu is shown below.
1
Num Tasks:
Specify the number of tasks for this analysis. The number of tasks dictates the number of rows of data that can be entered on the worksheet. Any data stored below this table will be cleared when formatting the worksheet.
2
Num Resources:
Specify the number of resources you want to develop the RACI analysis.
This variable determines the number of columns to display on the worksheet. Make sure you select all the stakeholders involved in your project.
3
View Example:
Click on this button to add an example worksheet. You can use the example to understand how others have filled out the tool or use the example as a starting point and modify it to meet your needs better.
4
Help Button:
Click on this button to open the help file for this topic.
5
Cancel Button:
Click on this button to cancel all changes to the settings and exit this dialog box.
6a
Create Design: If this is your first time using this template, click on this button to format the worksheet template. You can also update the worksheet format any time, but remember that you may lose any data entered on this worksheet.
Once you are happy with the worksheet template layout, you must enter any required data on the worksheet. When the data entered into the worksheet is complete, you can click on Analysis Setup and then Compute Outputs to generate analysis results.
6b
Analyze Design:
Click on this button to save all changes and compute the outputs for this analysis. Review the results of your analysis and make changes to your inputs if required to update analysis results.
Enter the description of the activities in the worksheet:
Enter the task number.
Enter a brief description of the tasks involved with this project. Make sure that all tasks are listed. It may help to review the detailed process map to list the tasks involved.
List all the stakeholders in this project at the top. Make sure you have a comprehensive list of stakeholders.
For each task, identify the key roles and responsibilities:
Responsible (R): Identify which stakeholders are responsible for this activity. Note that at least one stakeholder should be responsible for each task. The person responsible is the one who is expected to work on this activity primarily.
Accountable (A): Identify one and only one stakeholder who is accountable for this activity. The person who is accountable for this activity is not the person who may perform the activity but who is ultimately accountable for the completion of the activity. If an activity is not completed, this person eventually has to answer for it.
Consulted (C): Identify all the stakeholders who should be consulted before working on this activity. One or more stakeholders could be consulted for each activity. The persons consulted could be the subject matter experts.
Informed (I): Identify all the stakeholders who should be informed on the progress of this activity. These could be key management team members interested in the activity outcome.
Checklist
You will see the following dialog box if you click the Checklist button.
The checklist contains a few pointers on things you must pay particular attention to while performing this analysis. The checklist has been derived from experience working on past projects. Not all the checklist items need to apply to you. However, you should carefully review the checklist and apply any recommendations that make sense for your project. Make sure to read each checklist item and mark it as completed after you have read and taken actions as appropriate for your project.
1
Item:
The items on the checklist are listed on the left
2
Status:
The status of whether the checklist has been answered is listed on the right.
If all the checked items are okay, the status image in the header will show a green checkmark. If any checks fail, the header status image will show a red cross mark.
Ideally, all items on the checklist should be marked as reviewed/completed.
Verify
If you click the Verify button, the software will perform some checks on the data you entered. A sample screenshot of the dialog box is shown in the figure below.
The software checks if you have correctly specified the input options and entered the required data on the worksheet. The results of the analysis checks are listed on the right. If the checks are passed, they are shown as green-colored checkmarks. If the verification checks fail, they are shown as a red-colored cross. If the verification checks result in a warning, they are shown in the orange exclamation mark. Finally, any checks that are required to be performed by the user are shown as blue info icons.
1
Item:
The left-hand side shows the major tabs and the items checked within each section
2
Status:
The right-hand side shows the status of the checks.
3
Overall Status:
The overall status of all the checks for the given analysis is shown here. The overall status check shows a green thumps-up sign if everything is okay and a red thumps-down sign if any checks have not passed. Note that you cannot proceed with generating analysis results for some analyses if the overall status is not okay.
Outputs
Click on Compute Outputs to update the output calculations. A sample screenshot of the worksheet is shown below.
When you click on Compute Outputs, the worksheet will be checked to ensure that the RACI analysis was performed correctly. The following checks are performed:
There is at least one person accountable for each activity.
There is at least one person responsible for each activity.
All the stakeholders listed have at least one role.
If all the above conditions are met, the analysis will report "OK." If not, the offending check is listed at the top so that you can correct the worksheet appropriately.
There are no specific graphical outputs to interpret for this analysis. If all the template elements have been filled out, you will get the following message when you click on the Compute Outputs button.
Notes
Here are a few pointers regarding this analysis:
The current software version can only assign one role to each stakeholder. However, you can use some standard assumptions: The consulted person is also informed. The accountable person is also consulted and informed. The person who is responsible is automatically consulted and informed.
Examples
The following examples are in the Examples folder.
Select a project you are currently working on and develop a RACI chart. (RACI 1.xlsx)