RACI matrix template

Every day, we make hundreds of decisions. At work, we often need to make those decisions quickly. Otherwise, your project deliverables (and ultimately, larger company objectives) can suffer from delays and miscommunications. That’s why it’s so important to know who’s in charge of what—so you know who has decision-making authority, who to talk to for more information, and who needs to give final approval.

A RACI matrix helps you define decision-making roles, clarifying who’s involved in each component of a project before you start. This helps you get early stakeholder buy-in and, when you actually get to work, show who’s in charge of each aspect. In short, RACI charts simplify and clarify project roles—and a RACI matrix template incentivizes every team to use them.

What is a RACI matrix?

A RACI matrix is a way to define a project team’s roles and responsibilities for a project deliverable. RACI is an acronym for these project roles, which stands for:

• (R) Responsible: The person in charge of (or responsible for) a specific project task. It’s important that there’s only one “responsible” team member for each task—multiple people in the “responsible” role can lead to project delays (while they wait for one another’s decision) and confuse stakeholders who don’t know where to go with questions.

• (A) Accountable: The accountable person oversees task completion. In other words, they make sure the work gets done. To reduce confusion, there’s usually only one accountable person per task. 

• (C) Consulted: This is the person or people who review and approve the work before it moves forward or is marked complete.

• (I) Informed: Informed stakeholders need to be kept in the loop about the project’s progress, but might not necessarily be involved in the work. Ensuring that stakeholders are informed throughout the project helps you get initial buy-in, plus create a finished product everyone is excited about.

The RACI model is especially beneficial for larger organizations with many cross-functional teams and senior stakeholders. But it’s also helpful for small teams where individuals operate in many different roles at once. Plus, RACI encourages input from a variety of different team members, which can help you find solutions to more complex issues. 

What is a RACI matrix template?

A RACI matrix template is a saved, fill-in-the-blank outline of your organization’s RACI matrix. Also referred to as a RACI chart template, it’s a way to streamline RACI matrices across the company. You might not need a RACI chart for every deliverable, but if you’re a large program or organization that routinely relies on RACI to work on different types of projects, using a template can help. Templatizing a RACI matrix for your organization makes it easier for teams to use a consistent RACI model for their projects, reducing confusion and boosting efficiency company-wide. 

The benefits of using a RACI matrix template

There are many benefits to using a RACI matrix template, but the main one is that it provides a standardized RACI chart example for your organization. In other words, a RACI matrix template makes it easier for teams to create their own RACI charts, making it more likely that they’ll use a RACI.

Which is important. When you get clear about task ownership, you empower each employee to step into their respective roles and collaborate more effectively. This results in more motivated employees, which leads to more productive output. In short, your RACI matrix template allows you to do more, with less.

For programs or organizations with many complex projects and deliverables, using a template ensures that you’re using the RACI model consistently. This consistency allows for greater visibility into who’s doing what for each milestone and task in a project. Because the RACI formatting is the same company-wide, you know how other teams are using it, even if they’re in a different department. With consistent use, this reduces confusion and helps to further connect individuals to their respective work. 

How to use a RACI matrix template

To use your RACI matrix template, first consult your project plan to determine which project deliverables need a RACI chart. Create a new RACI matrix from your template and a list of tasks for each deliverable. If it’s helpful, add sections or milestones to break up the task list into project phases. For example, if you work in production, your phases could be beginning, middle, end, pre-production, production, and post-production. 

Then, assign RACI roles for each specific task. Add in columns to track the project progress, and update it in real-time. For maximum functionality, create your template in a project management tool. This way, you can update stakeholders asynchronously, reducing status meetings and giving back time to your more senior staff members—and everyone else on the team.

Once it’s complete, share your RACI matrix template across teams and departments. One of the main benefits of using a template is to ensure consistency, so you want to be sure that everyone who needs access has it. Include additional information that will help stakeholders clearly find the details they need, or connect with people for questions. To improve buy-in, highlight where specific roles are subject matter experts, to showcase that you’ve carefully thought through how you’re defining each RACI role. 

Integrations for Asana templates

Uses these features and integrations to build a RACI matrix template in Asana that best fits your team’s needs.

Integrated features

• List View. List View is a grid-style view that makes it easy to see all of your project’s information at a glance. Like a to-do list or a spreadsheet, List View displays all of your tasks at once so you can not only see task titles and due dates, but also view any relevant custom fields like Priority, Status, or more. Unlock effortless collaboration by giving your entire team visibility into who’s doing what by when.

• Approvals. Sometimes you don’t just need to complete a task—you need to know if a deliverable is approved or not. Approvals are a special type of task in Asana with options to “Approve,” “Request changes,” or “Reject” the task. That way, task owners get clear instructions on what actions they should take and whether their work has been approved or not. 

• Custom fields. Custom fields are the best way to tag, sort, and filter work. Create unique custom fields for any information you need to track—from priority and status to email or phone number. Use custom fields to sort and schedule your to-dos so you know what to work on first. Plus, share custom fields across tasks and projects to ensure consistency across your organization. 

• Timeline View. Timeline View is a Gantt-style project view that displays all of your tasks in a horizontal bar chart. Not only can you see each task’s start and end date, but you can also see dependencies between tasks. With Timeline View, you can easily track how the pieces of your plan fit together. Plus, when you can see all of your work in one place, it’s easy to identify and address dependency conflicts before they start, so you can hit all of your goals on schedule.

Apps

• Google Workplace. Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Google Workplace file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane. Easily attach any My Drive file with just a few clicks.

• Slack. Turn ideas, work requests, and action items from Slack into trackable tasks and comments in Asana. Go from quick questions and action items to tasks with assignees and due dates. Easily capture work so requests and to-dos don’t get lost in Slack. 

• Miro. Connect Miro and Asana to streamline workflows and see the full picture of every project, all in one place. Embed Miro boards into Asana project briefs, allowing team members to interact, view, comment, or edit directly from within Asana. Or, attach an existing or new Miro board to any Asana task, automatically inviting task collaborators to view, comment, or edit the board. 

• OneDrive. Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Microsoft OneDrive file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane. Easily attach files from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more.

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