This template uses the RACI framework of project roles to bring your action plan down to the individual team level. In essence, it answers the question of which unit of your overall project team is doing the work (Responsible), calling the shots (Accountable), whose opinion matters (Consulted), and who needs to stay in the loop (Informed) for each task or project deliverable.
When working with this template you will need to list down all your tasks in the first column of the spreadsheet. Ideally, your Action Plan should already have this list of deliverables & milestones so all you need to do is replicate that list here. Your next step is to identify all the individual units of personnel (or teams) who will be working on these deliverables throughout your project’s lifecycle.
Your project team might include a Research & Development team, a Design team, a Marketing team, and a Quality Assurance team who need to cooperatively and collaboratively work on shared tasks to ensure project success. Once you have nailed down your tasks (vertically) and your teams (horizontally) – it’s time to assign RACI roles using our drop-down menu. We use circles of different colors to represent each of the four task ownership levels in the RACI framework: Responsible (Orange), Accountable (Pink), Consulted (Purple), and Informed (Blue).
By setting clear expectations and strong vertical communication lines from the get-go, this template allows project managers, stakeholders as well as HR and operational managers to create well-defined functional teams. It can be particularly helpful when creating cross-functional teams that comprise members from different departments or divisions of your organization.
This RACI Matrix template is available in Excel in .xlsx, .xltx, and .ods formats, as well as Google Sheets for cloud-based sharing, editing, and collaboration.
