RACI Matrix Template

The template below works for a project of any size, and the section on what not to RACI is as important as the template itself.

Quick answer: RACI assigns four roles to each decision or deliverable: Responsible does the work, Accountable answers for the outcome, Consulted gives input before, Informed is told after.

The rule that carries almost all the value is exactly one Accountable per row. Most RACI matrices fail because that rule is broken to avoid an uncomfortable conversation.

The Four Letters, Precisely

What is the difference between responsible and accountable?

and getting it right is most of the benefit.

Responsible does the work

The people who carry out the task. There can be several, and the role is about doing rather than deciding.

Responsible is the easiest letter to assign and the least contentious, which is why matrices that only get this right add little.

Accountable answers for it

The single person who answers for the outcome, has the authority to approve it, and is the escalation point when it goes wrong.

Exactly one per row. This is the letter that matters. Where nobody is accountable, work drifts; where two people are, each assumes the other has it. Naming one person is uncomfortable precisely because it is meaningful.

Consulted and Informed

Consulted means their input is sought before the decision, and they can genuinely influence it.

This is two-way.

Informed means they are told after, and cannot change it. This is one-way. Confusing these two is the second most common RACI error — people marked Informed who believed they were Consulted are the source of most late-stage objections.

Related: Free Project Plan Template (With Example)

The RACI Template

Decisions or deliverables down the left, people or roles across the top.

Decision / Deliverable Role A Role B Role C Role D Role E *Item 1* A R C I —

*Item 2* I A R C I *Item 3* C I A R — *Item 4* A C R R I

R = Responsible (does it) · A = Accountable (answers for it, exactly one per row) · C = Consulted (input before) · I = Informed (told after)

A Filled Example

A website redesign project across five roles.

Decision / Deliverable Head of Marketing Project Lead Designer Developer Legal Project scope agreed A R C C I Brand direction approved A C R I — Page designs signed off A C R I — Copy approved A R I — C Technical approach chosen I C — A/R — Accessibility standard met I A R R C Privacy and cookie compliance I C — R A Launch date confirmed A R I C I Go-live decision A R I C I

Note that Legal is Accountable for compliance and Informed on everything else — a common and correct pattern that prevents legal being consulted on design choices.

The Rules That Make It Work

One Accountable per row, few Consulted, and only use RACI where ambiguity actually exists.

Exactly one Accountable per row

No exceptions. If two people appear genuinely accountable, either the item should be split into two rows, or there is an unresolved organisational question the matrix has just exposed.

That exposure is valuable. A matrix that reveals nobody knows who decides something has already earned its cost.

Limit the Consulted

Consultation is expensive — it means waiting for input before proceeding. Four Consulted on a row means four potential delays.

Ask of each: would their objection actually change the decision? If not, they are Informed.

Consultation inflation is what makes projects slow while looking collaborative.

Do not RACI everything

RACI has a cost in creation and maintenance. Use it where responsibility is genuinely ambiguous — cross-functional work, multiple teams, unclear decision rights.

A five-person team working on one thing does not need one. Applying it universally produces documents nobody reads, which discredits the technique where it is genuinely needed.

Building One in Under an Hour

List decisions rather than tasks, fill Accountable first, and circulate asking for disagreement.

List decisions, not tasks

Rows should be decisions and deliverables, not activities. "Brand direction approved" not "design the brand".

Task-level RACI produces a matrix with sixty rows that nobody maintains. Decision-level produces twelve to twenty rows that stay relevant for the project's life.

Fill Accountable first

Go down the whole Accountable column before assigning anything else. This is where the disagreements are, and finding them early is the point.

Everything else follows quickly once accountability is settled. Doing it last means discovering the hard questions after an hour of easy work.

Circulate for disagreement, not approval

Send it round asking specifically: is there any row where you disagree with the Accountable, or where you expected to be Consulted and are Informed?

Asking for approval gets silence. Asking for disagreement gets the objections you need, and it gets them now rather than at sign-off. Attaching the matrix to the project itself, rather than emailing a file, means people can find it when the question actually arises.

Common RACI Mistakes

Three failures: two people accountable, everybody consulted, and a matrix written once and never referenced.

Two people accountable

Almost always a way of avoiding an uncomfortable conversation about who really decides.

The consequence appears later, when a decision needs making and each assumes the other owns it. Resolve it now, when it costs a conversation.

Everyone consulted

Marking senior people as Consulted to avoid offending them creates real delay and real obligation.

Consulted means you wait for their input. If you would proceed without it, they are Informed, and saying so honestly is better than a matrix nobody follows.

Written once and never used

Created during project setup, filed, and never opened again.

The test of a RACI matrix is whether anyone consults it when a question arises. Keep it with the project rather than in a folder, and reference it explicitly the first few times a decision-rights question comes up — that establishes it as a real reference rather than an artefact.