RACI Matrix: Who Does What on Your Project

A RACI matrix is a simple grid that shows, for each task or deliverable, who is Responsible for doing the work, who is Accountable for the outcome, who must be Consulted before decisions, and who should be Informed afterwards. It removes the most expensive question on any project: "I thought you were doing that?"

It takes an hour to build and saves weeks of confusion, especially on projects where a client, an agency and several specialists all touch the same work.

The four roles, in plain English

• Responsible: the person or people who do the work. There can be several.
• Accountable: the one person who answers for the result and makes the final call. There should be exactly one.
• Consulted: people whose input is needed before or during the work. Two-way conversation.
• Informed: people who need to know the outcome. One-way update.

The rule that matters most is "one A per row". Two accountable people means nobody is.

How to build a RACI matrix

1. List the deliverables or activities down the side. Keep it to meaningful items, typically ten to twenty.
2. List the roles across the top. Use roles, not names, so the matrix survives staff changes.
3. Fill in each cell with R, A, C, I or leave it blank.
4. Check every row has one A and at least one R.
5. Check every column. A role with no letters may not need to be involved. A role with many A's may be a bottleneck.
6. Review it with the people named and agree it. A RACI imposed without discussion is ignored.

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A software project example

Here is how a few rows might read for an agency building a client web app:

• Scope document: project manager responsible, client sponsor accountable, tech lead consulted, developers informed.
• Database design: developer responsible, tech lead accountable, project manager informed.
• Test runs: testers responsible, QA lead accountable, developers consulted, client informed.
• Production release: developer responsible, tech lead accountable, client consulted, support informed.
• Final sign-off: project manager responsible, client sponsor accountable.

Notice the client appears as Accountable on scope and sign-off. That is deliberate: the client owns those decisions, and the RACI makes it explicit. It ties in closely with stakeholder management, since every C and I is a stakeholder you need to keep in the loop.

Common mistakes

• Too many C's, which slows every decision to a crawl.
• Using names instead of roles, so the matrix is out of date within months.
• Building it once at kickoff and never looking at it again.
• Keeping it in a document that is disconnected from the actual tickets.

How Flow helps

A RACI matrix is only useful if it is reflected in how work is actually assigned. Flow helps make the letters real:

• Assignee and tester on every ticket, so "Responsible" for building and for verifying are both explicit.
• Custom roles and a permissions matrix, so what each role can see and change matches their place in the RACI.
• Client board with scope approval and sign-off, putting the client's Accountable decisions in the system rather than in email.
• Notifications and auto-watch, so the people marked Informed get updates without being copied on everything.

Teams coming from Asana, which handles task ownership and collaborators well, often find that the missing piece is the client's formal role. Livex Flow builds that into the workflow. For more on setting access correctly, see roles and permissions.