What Is a RACI Matrix? (With a Template You Can Copy)

RACI is a responsibility chart that assigns one of four roles to every person on each task: Responsible (does the work), Accountable (owns the outcome), Consulted (gives input), and Informed (kept in the loop).

The whole point of RACI is to kill one specific sentence: “I thought you had it.” That sentence is where deadlines die. Two people each assumed the other owned a task, nobody did it, and everyone found out a week too late. A RACI matrix forces that ambiguity into the open before the work starts, by naming exactly who does what and who answers for it.

---

What does RACI stand for?

Four roles, one letter each. For any given task, every person gets assigned one of them.

• Responsible. The person who actually does the work. There can be more than one, but someone has to be holding the shovel.
• Accountable. The person who owns the outcome and signs off when it is done. There should be exactly one. The moment you have two accountable people, you have zero.
• Consulted. People whose input you need before or during the work. Two-way conversation. They shape the result.
• Informed. People who need to know the outcome but do not weigh in. One-way update. Kept in the loop, not in the decision.

The discipline is assigning these honestly. Most stalled projects are not short on effort. They are short on a clear single owner, which is the Accountable role doing its job.

---

How do you build a RACI matrix?

A RACI matrix is a simple grid. Tasks run down the left side. People or roles run across the top. Each cell gets an R, A, C, or I. Here is a small example for a campaign launch.

Task	Marketing Lead	Designer	Legal	VP Marketing
Write campaign brief	A/R	I	C	I
Design assets	A	R	I	I
Legal review	C	I	R	A
Approve and launch	R	I	I	A

Building one takes four steps.

1. List the tasks or deliverables down the left. Keep them concrete, not vague phases.
2. List the people or roles across the top.
3. Assign one letter per cell. Every task needs exactly one A. Most need at least one R.
4. Check the rows and columns. A row with no A has no owner. A row with three A’s has no clear owner either. A column stacked with R’s means that person is overloaded.

That last check is where the matrix earns its keep. The pattern shows you the problem before the project does.

---

What is the difference between Responsible and Accountable?

This is the distinction the whole framework hinges on, and the one people get wrong most.

Responsible is who does the work. Accountable is who answers for it. The Responsible person writes the report. The Accountable person is the one their boss looks at if the report is wrong.

They can be the same person on a small task, marked “A/R.” But on anything important, splitting them is the point. A manager is often Accountable for work that a team member is Responsible for doing. Accountability cannot be shared. If everyone owns the outcome, no one does, which is exactly the gap RACI exists to close.

---

What are RACI alternatives (RASCI, RACanI)?

RACI has variants for teams that need more nuance.

• RASCI adds Supportive: people who help the Responsible person do the work, beyond just giving input.
• RACI-VS adds Verifier and Signatory, separating who checks the work from who formally approves it. Common in regulated environments.
• RACanI (sometimes written RACI with an “n”) adds a role for people who are explicitly not involved, which sounds redundant until you have spent an hour explaining to someone why they are not on a project.

Start with plain RACI. Add letters only if the basic four genuinely fail to capture a role your team keeps arguing about.

---

Where RACI breaks (and what to do about it)

Here is the honest problem with a RACI matrix: it is usually a document, and documents go stale. You build a beautiful grid in a spreadsheet at kickoff, everyone nods, and then the actual project moves into a tool or an inbox while the RACI sits in a folder nobody opens again. By week three the chart and the work have drifted apart, and the “I thought you had it” problem is right back.

The fix is to put ownership where the work actually lives, not in a separate file. When every task carries its owner inside the system the team uses every day, accountability stops being a document you maintain and starts being a property of the work itself. Molly McGee at Accentra Health described the stakes plainly: “Things still fall through the cracks. Adherence is one thing, but even with adherence, things still fall through.” A static grid does not stop that. Ownership attached to live tasks does.

In Workzone, every task has a clear owner and an approver inside the live project, so the RACI logic is built into the work instead of stranded in a spreadsheet. Use the template below to think it through, then put the answers where your team will actually see them.

Get the RACI template →

---

Frequently asked questions

What is a RACI matrix used for?
A RACI matrix is used to make responsibility explicit on a project. It assigns every person a clear role on each task (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, or Informed) so there is no confusion about who does the work, who owns the outcome, whose input is needed, and who just needs to be kept informed.

Can one person be both Responsible and Accountable?
Yes, and on small tasks it is common, marked “A/R.” The person both does the work and owns the outcome. On larger or higher-stakes work it is better to split them, with a manager Accountable for the result and a team member Responsible for the work. The rule that never bends: exactly one Accountable person per task.

What is a RACI template?
A RACI template is a ready-made grid with tasks down one side and roles across the top, so you only have to fill in the R, A, C, and I letters instead of building the structure from scratch. It is the fastest way to run the exercise, and the most useful version lives inside your project tool so it stays current.

---

Related reading: · What Is a Milestone in Project Management?