The RACI (and RASCI) Chart

What is a RACI chart?

A RACI chart is a simple matrix used to assign roles and responsibilities for each task, milestone, or decision. By clearly mapping out which roles are involved in each task and at which level, you can eliminate confusion and answer the age-old question, “Who’s doing what?”

RACI is a useful complement to a process map, since it can get into more detailed and specific activities than a high-level process map. Think of a process map at one level of abstraction and RACI as the next level of detail

What does RACI stand for?

RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed. Each letter in the acronym represents a level of task responsibility.

When to use RACI

RACI’s are best used in procedures as part of the responsibilities section or to start each section in a long procedure.

RACI’s are great tools that can help:

Design or re-design processes more efficiently by highlighting decisions
Clarify overlapping, redundant, “bottle-necked,” or inconsistent responsibilities
Structure and distribute responsibility and authority
Establish clear lines of communication
Reduce duplication of efforts; pinpoint what can “come off the plate”

RACI definitions

A RACI is a matrix of tasks or deliverables and the roles associated with them.

Each box in the matrix identifies that role’s function in the task

Responsible – primary role performing the work
Accountable – role primarily responsible for the work getting done (and done correctly)
Consulted – roles providing input into the task or deliverable. Consulted means prior to the decision/activity.
Informed – roles to be informed of the outcome of the task or deliverable so that they may fulfill execute their role in the process or other process.

I’m a big fan of adding Supporting, and doing a RASCI. Supporting is very helpful in identifying individuals who provide support services, and often capture indirect accountabilities.

Key point – only one Responsible and one Accountable role for any task or deliverable. In some processes, Responsible and Accountable may be the same role

How to create a RACI

Follow these 3 steps, using the RACI chart example below as your guide:

Enter all responsibilities in the procedure across the top row.
List all procedural steps/tasks, milestones, and decisions down the left column.
For each step, assign a responsibility value to each role or person on the team.

Ensure the following:

Every task has one Responsible person (and only one!).
There’s one (and only one!) Accountable party assigned to each task to allow for clear decision-making.
If you have a lot of C and I roles on your matrix, make sure you have an easy and lightweight way to keep them informed in the procedure.

Some points to consider:

Have a representative from each of the major functions that participate in the process
Reach consensus on all Accountabilities and Responsibilities
Consider the emotional aspects of documenting “A”s and “R”s, including job justification
Eliminate excessive “C”s and “I”s
Consider the organization’s culture

Review the RACI chart vertically to:

Avoid under- or over-committing positions or team members
Eliminate unnecessary gates and bottlenecks
Designate appropriate skill sets

Review the RACI chart horizontally to:

Clarify any ambiguous division of labor
Ensure adequate continuity across decisions and process steps
Ensure accountability and authority to get the job done

Although the RACI is a simple tool, the process of creating it and having it agreed is a political process.

Developing RACI charts surfaces many organizational issues because it confronts the three elements of roles and responsibilities:

Role Conception: what people think their jobs are and how they have been trained to perform them
Role Expectation: what others in the organization think another person’s job is and how it should be carried out
Role Behavior: what people actually do in carrying out their job

Example

	Deviation Creator	Area Responsible	QA	Investigation Team	Site Head
Take real-time action to minimize and contain the effect of an event	R	A	I	–	–
Assemble cross functional team for Triage	R	A	I	–	–
Determine if the event is a deviation	R	C	A	C	–
Define batch association strategy	C	R	A	I	–
Define Containment	C	R	A	C	–
Create Deviation in eQMS in 24 hr	R	A	I	–	–
Gather Data	C	A/R	C	C	–

Flow Chart

The flow chart is a simple, but important, graphic organizer. Placing the states or steps of an event or process into the correct sequence allows you to reach conclusions and make predictions.

However, its simplicity means we don’t always work to be consistent and can benefit from a little effort to ensure users are aligned.

I am a huge fan of including flow charts in all process and procedure documents.

Steps for Building a flow chart

Capture

Capture the events or steps of the process. Resist the urge to arrange them sequentially and concentrate on capturing the events/steps only.

Cull

If there are more than eight steps in a flow chart we start creating cognitive overload. If a process or procedure has more than eight steps you need to:

Ensure the steps are at the right level, sometimes we have substeps represented and we can cull that. Ensure they are all on the same level of process/procedure/task.
Decide we need to break the procedure into multiple documents. This is a great way to decide what work instructions are necessary.
Look for opportunity for process improvement.

Sequence the events and draw the flow chart

The focus now shifts to temporal relations. The correct sequential arrangements of steps or events helps to reach conclusions about past events and prepare for future events.

Example

I’m writing the procedure for my mornings, I capture the following:

Eat breakfast
Take shower
Take dog out
Get dressed
Decide on tea
Heat water
Drink tea
Read for 30 minutes
Deal with morning email
Snuggle with dog

Taking a look at the list I realize that not everything is on the same level of process/procedure/task and end up with a shorter list.

Breakfast
Take shower
Take dog out
Get dressed
Read for 30 minutes
Deal with morning email
Snuggle with dog

Notice how I combined all the tea stuff into a breakfast category. When brainstorming my list I put a lot of weight on tea, because it is important to me (yes I have been using tea as a training example since 2005, I just love tea).

I can then put them in sequence:

When I was making things sequential I realized that two of my activities (read and dog snuggle) were concurrent, so I combined them as one step.

Process, Procedure and Task

A task is the steps for doing a particular piece of work.

Procedure are activities made up of a series of tasks.

A process is an upper level description of a series of activities required to accomplish an objective. Processes are made up of procedures or tasks. They have inputs and outputs.

Process	Procedure	Task
Flow of sequences of activities that transform input elements into results	Specific and required way to carry out a process	Describe the correct steps to perform a specific task
What we do By Whom Where it takes place When it happens	How the work must be performed	How to accomplish a specific task within a process with very detailed directions
Orchestration the work	Mandatory method	Mandatory guidance
Can link to 0, 1 or more procedures	It may consist of 0, 1 or more task instructions	Focus on the instructions of 1 task
Transversal by business units	Cross functional or only 1 business unit	Only 1 business unit
Participate more than one role	Participate more than one role	Participate only one role
Encapsulates activities	Explains how to do but doesn’t get to all the details of how it is done	All of the detail of all the steps to follow in an activity
Provides the workflow model at the highest level using BPMN	Document with both narrative and images, usually in the form of use cases and workflow diagrams	Document with the maximum detail that explains step by step the instructions that must be carried out in an activity

Process, Procedure and Task Differences

This is the middle of a traditional document hierarchy and forms the Functional set of documents.

Task Analysis

What is Task Analysis?

A task analysis breaks down a complex task into its components – the steps involved and the knowledge required. To do a task analysis, you observe the work and interview a subject matter expert (SME) or key performer.

What do you want to identify in a task analysis?

Why someone would learn the skill
Prerequisite skills, knowledge and attitudes
Special materials or tools required
Warnings of dangers, both overall and at specific points in the process
The critical steps (no more than five to seven, otherwise you should split it into another task) and their sequence
Whether the sequence is critical or flexible
Any other steps necessary to complete the task and their sequence
How critical any given substep is
Conditions that must be satisfied before going on to the next step
Reasons for doing steps at a particular point
Signs of success for each step (for confirmations)
Signs of failure for each step

What is the process for doing a task analysis?

Review any documentation, manuals or process maps
Observe at least one expert and take notes as you observe
Either slow down experts during the task to ask questions or interview afterward
Identify each step
Document what you saw and what the expert told you, then ask for the SME’s reaction, there will almost always be gaps identified
Expect the process to be iterative

What should you ask the SME?

What is the SME doing?
Why is it important, or what is the rationale?
Why is the SME doing it that way?
Is there a warning necessary?
How does the SME know what to do next (if there is a choice between two or more actions)?
How can the SME tell if a step was done right?
How can the SME tell if a step was done wrong or incompletely?
How is the sequence critical?
What does the SME do that isn’t documented?

While often viewed from the training perspective, task analysis is a core quality tool that is utilized in procedure writing, automation, user interface development, problem solving and so much more.