One major reason why project managers experience failure in their projects is their inability to define and document the project roles and responsibilities among their team members. This usually results in them not knowing who to hold responsible, who is accountable, who should be consulted and who should be informed at each phase of the project.
Having a good plan for your project is awesome but it is never the yardstick that guarantees the success of your project. It is how you can manage the process of assigning roles and responsibilities to your members that brings the desired outcome from your project.
RACI is an acronym derived from: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. And RACI matrix template is all you need for the definition and documentation of the roles and responsibilities of your members. With a RACI matrix template, you are assured of getting the best out of your project plan.
According to Bob Kanton, the RACI matrix aids the project managers in avoiding any confusion and omission of the roles and responsibilities of the team members thereby boosting the success of their projects.
Again, the reason why 97.5% of projects fail to optimize their plans is their inability to integrate the RACI project management template in managing the process of task delegation.
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Simple RACI template; how to use it in your project
The simple RACI template is a useful tool for project managers in mapping the tasks and milestones that are involved in the completion of a project. It will describe each participant by roles in the task of completing the project deliverables.
RACI diagram template offers the project team an overview of the tasks of the various team members and their responsibilities in the project.
In project management, RACI depicts the four roles that stakeholders of a project will play in a project. The roles are the following:
Responsible: these are the people who carry out the task of a project. They are responsible for the completion of the task of the project.
Accountable: these are stakeholders who own the work. They are saddled with the task of approval when a task is completed in a project.
Consulted: these are the stakeholders whose input is needed before the task of a project is executed.
Informed: these are stakeholders that should be updated about the progress or decision about a project.
The use of the RACI document template in a project serves as a model that structures your project and brings clarity to your project. It will properly describe the roles that stakeholders play in a project.
How to create a simple RACI template
The following steps will help you in creating a RACI project management template:
Step 1: identify the tasks that are involved in the project and list them on the left side of the chart in the order of completion.
Step 2: identify the project stakeholders and list them on the top of the chart.
Step 3: complete the cells of the model by identifying who is responsible, accountable, who will be consulted and informed about each task.
Step 4: make sure that each task has a stakeholder that is responsible for it.
Step 5: ensure that no tasks should have more than one stakeholder that is accountable. Also, you should ensure that any conflict where there is more than one stakeholder for a specific task is resolved.
Step 6: share and communicate the RACI template with your stakeholders at the beginning of the project.
For example, the project management tool Sinnaps is suitable for use as a simple RACI matrix template; it will define and document the roles and responsibilities of your project team in a manner that will bring about the fulfillment of the projects’ goals and objectives.
Stakeholder RACI matrix template
Every business organization has its stakeholders that are responsible for decisions used in running the activities of the organization. The examples of stakeholders are competitors, government, customers, suppliers, and business owners.
No doubt, each stakeholder has a role to play in the success of the organization as each of them has its interest and influence on the business organization.
The stakeholder RACI matrix template will specify the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder. It is a useful tool for stakeholder mapping because it will assist in the analysis of the power and interest of the stakeholders. It will analyze a project stakeholder to determine the actions which are crucial to aligning their goals with the project.
For instance, in a stakeholder analysis example, you can deduce who has the most power and influence on the project. It will help in identifying those responsible for financing the project, those whose opinions should be sought before any decision is implemented and the ones are meant to be updated as at when due.
Furthermore, the stakeholder communication plan outlines the stakeholders you are required to communicate with about your project and how the tasks of the project will be done. With the stakeholder RACI matrix template, you can easily identify who they are and ensure everybody is on the same page.
RACI chart template Excel
RACI chart template Excel is a tool that can be used with ease in defining the roles and responsibilities of your team. You can conveniently download a spreadsheet on it by clicking on a single button.
RACI chart template Excel can be used to design the roles and responsibilities matrix template for your team. It will list out those that are responsible, accountable, who you are meant to consult and inform on the spreadsheet, thereby preventing you from missing out on anything vital to your project.
Download a Simple RACI Matrix Template in Excel
RACI matrix example
In this RACI matrix example below, you have an example that specifies the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders of an organization in a project.
R = Responsible
A = Accountable
C = Consulted
I = Informed
RACI project template is used in different sectors including software development projects. RACI matrix template for software development is useful stating the team roles to enable you to track the activities of the team members.
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