This template uses a role-based approach to assigning responsibilities to members of your project team for each project task or deliverable. When using this template, you need to first list down your tasks in the spreadsheet’s first column. Ideally, your Action Plan should already include this list of deliverables and milestones, so all you have to do is copy it here. Once you have comprehensively covered all planned activities of your project, you need to think about what specific project roles you will need to execute your plan at the task level.
One way to do this is to think about all the different skill sets, past professional experiences, and individual personality traits or aptitudes (say, leadership traits) you will need to complete each task. Naturally, you will also need to factor in budgetary concerns as well as the general scope of your project when making these decisions. Once you know the generic roles needed to see your project through, it’s time to think about what relationship each role shall have to each task.
In a RACI framework, you get to choose from four distinct task ownership levels: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. As you can see, each cell in our spreadsheet features a built-in drop-down menu that allows you to select one of these RACI roles for each project role and task. We use a color-coded system to help you more easily visualize your RACI roles. In addition to this, you can designate a specific priority level for each task based on factors like overall project goals or client expectations.
Our default drop-down menu offers three options: ‘High, ‘Medium, and ‘Low’; however, we have added a configuration sheet in case you want to use different categories based on your project context. Next up, we have the final column where you can specify a deadline for each task. As every project manager knows, deadlines are the guiding stars of project management that allow you to efficiently plan and track the progress of your tasks once your project is underway.
From a project management perspective, things like more organization and clearer communication are generally better, so the benefits of using a RACI chart on a project far outweigh the drawbacks; especially for complex and dynamic projects involving multiple teams working together. To make it easier for you to conceptualize your work plan and assign responsibilities, our team has developed a series of RACI-based templates for projects of all sizes and complexity.
Our spreadsheets are pre-designed, editable documents that save you hours of research and design time, allowing you to focus on more productive project tasks. Use our unique RACI Matrix templates to debate, communicate, and finalize project team roles! These templates are available in Excel (.xlsx,.xltx, and.ods formats), as well as Google Sheets for cloud-based sharing, editing, and collaboration.
