RACI Matrix Template
Responsible, accountable, consulted, informed — one row per activity.
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| Project | [project or team] |
| Date | October 14, 2026 |
| Activity | Responsible | Accountable | Consulted | Informed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [add one activity per line] |
What the letters mean
RResponsible — does the work. There can be several.
AAccountable — answers for it. There is exactly one, and it is a person, not a committee.
CConsulted — asked before the decision, and their answer can change it.
IInformed — told after, and cannot reopen it.
What is an RACI Matrix?
A RACI matrix is a grid: activities down the side, people or roles across the top, and one letter in each cell — responsible, accountable, consulted or informed. It matters because most project delays are not caused by anyone being unwilling, but by two people each assuming the other owned a decision. The matrix forces that assumption into the open, on paper, before the work starts.
Project managers, programme offices and anyone running work that crosses departments — a system rollout, an office relocation, a regulatory response, a product launch involving legal, marketing and engineering. It is most useful where the people involved do not share a manager, because that is where escalation is slowest and where nobody can simply be told. Consultancies produce one at the start of an engagement to fix the boundary between their work and the client's. Internal teams often build one only after a handover has already been dropped.
A RACI describes how a team works, not who is legally answerable. Statutory duties do not move because a letter moved on a grid: directors' duties under your local company law, employer duties under workplace safety legislation, and controller obligations under data protection rules such as the UK and EU GDPR stay where the law puts them. Financial approval limits are set by your organisation's delegation of authority and, for regulated entities, by the regulator. Check both before writing an A against someone's name for a decision that carries a signature.
The matrix schedules nothing. It says who decides and who does; it says nothing about when, how long, or in what order — those live in the plan and the task list. It also does not create capacity: a person marked responsible on fourteen rows will not do fourteen things at once, and the grid gives you no warning of that. And it does not survive being written once and filed. Roles change, and a matrix nobody has revisited since kick-off is quietly wrong by the middle of the project.
What to put in an RACI Matrix
These are the details this template asks for. Anything left blank is marked in red on the preview so you can see what is still missing.
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Issuing organisation | For example: Maple Grove Homeowners Association |
| Organisation address | For example: 1420 Kinnear Road, Columbus, OH 43212 |
| Project name | For example: Barton Road trade counter fit-out |
| Activities and who does what | One per line: Activity | Responsible | Accountable | Consulted | Informed |
How to write an RACI Matrix
List the activities, not the tasks
Rows should be decisions and deliverables, not the individual steps beneath them. 'Approve the data migration plan' and 'sign off the supplier contract' are rows. 'Export the customer table' is not — it belongs on a task list. Twelve to thirty rows suits most projects. Past that, people scan the grid rather than read it and the detail changes nobody's behaviour.
Put exactly one A on each row
Accountable is the person who answers for the outcome and signs off that it is done. One per row, always. If two names have a claim, the row is really two activities — split it until each half has a single owner. A row with two As recreates the exact ambiguity the matrix exists to remove, and a row with none is nobody's job.
Keep the R column honest
Responsible is who does the work. Several people can share it, but list the ones who will actually spend hours on it, not everyone who might touch it in passing. If R and A are the same person, write both letters in the cell rather than leaving one blank — a reader who sees an empty A column assumes someone forgot to fill it in.
Be strict about C and I
Consulted means their input is sought before the decision and can change it. Informed means they are told afterwards and cannot. The temptation is to mark everyone C to avoid offending anyone, which turns every decision into a round of meetings. Ask of each C: if this person disagreed, would we stop? If the honest answer is no, they are I.
Walk the grid with the named people
Send it round and have each person confirm the rows their name appears on. This is where disagreements surface, and it is cheaper to have them now than in month three. Note the date the version was agreed on the sheet itself, and revisit it when the project changes shape or someone named on it leaves.
Common mistakes
- Marking two people accountable on the same row, which recreates exactly the shared ownership the matrix was drawn to eliminate.
- Listing every stakeholder as consulted, so each decision needs a round of meetings and the project moves at the pace of the slowest diary.
- Using role titles nobody uses in the organisation, leaving readers unsure whether 'Business Owner' means their director or their team lead.
- Filing the matrix after kick-off and never updating it, so it names two people who have left and a system that was replaced in month two.
- Treating an A on the grid as legal delegation, when statutory and regulatory responsibility sits where the law puts it regardless of any internal document.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between responsible and accountable in RACI?
Responsible is who does the work; accountable is who answers for it and signs it off. A developer may be responsible for building an integration while an engineering manager is accountable for it working. The distinction earns its keep only when the two are different people — which is most of the time on cross-functional work, and the reason the model has four letters rather than two.
Can one person be both responsible and accountable?
Yes, and it is common on small teams. Write both letters in the cell so readers can see it was a decision rather than an omission. What you should not do is have two people accountable, or spread accountability across a team name. If a row really has two owners, it is two rows and should be split before anyone starts work.
What is RACI vs RASCI vs DACI?
They are variations on one idea. RASCI adds S for support — people who help the responsible party without owning the work. DACI replaces the letters with driver, approver, contributor and informed, and is aimed at single decisions rather than a whole project. The letters matter less than the discipline of one approver per item. Pick one scheme and use it consistently.
How many rows should a RACI matrix have?
Enough to cover the decisions that could be dropped and no more — commonly somewhere between a dozen and thirty for a project of a few months. If you find yourself listing routine steps, you have drifted into a task list. If the grid runs to several pages, split it by phase and produce one per phase instead.
Who should own the RACI matrix?
The project manager, or whoever is running the work. One person keeps the file, circulates changes and dates each version. It should not live as untracked copies in several inboxes, because the whole value depends on everyone reading the same grid. Review it whenever the scope changes or someone named on it leaves the organisation.
This page explains general practice and is not legal advice. Requirements differ between countries and, in some cases, between states — check what applies where the document will be used.