What is RACI matrix in project management?

 In Project Management before the project begins, the BA must know the stakeholders. Stakeholders are those people or personnel’s who are impacted by the project or can impact the project. So, it’s very important to do the stakeholders analysis. The stakeholders are not trained to share the requirements to the BA so its BA’s responsibility that while asking questions should probe into 5 Ws and 1H concept ( Why, What, who ,Where, When, Why  and How ) and setting up SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound) objective  before accepting the requirements for its development.

Also the BA Must use the RACI Matrix for the stakeholder analysis. RACI Matrix stand for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted & Informed. In RACI Chart its will be clearly defined about the stakeholders position or the projects decision making. And it’s easy to approach the exact person for the task.

Responsible:-During the project lifecycle  there are some personnel/ Stakeholders are responsible, some are accountable, some consulted and some of them needs to be informed. These are few personnel’s who can be the decision-making authorities. In the project life cycle for any task there must be at least one person responsible, but it also can be more than one person responsible for the same task. the person who is responsible can review the task to make sure it is completed properly. The person who is responsible is answerable to the management or higher authorities in can anything goes wrong. Mostly the project manager and the seniors persons are considered as responsible in the project management.

Accountable:- In project management for every task there  will be one person accountable. The person who is accountable will assign or delegate the work and review the same at the end before it considered completed. In small project its possible that the same person is responsible and accountable for the same task, but in large project it is better that these two roles are separated. If more than one person is accountable for a task it will create more confusion.

Consulted:-. Any stakeholder/s who must be consulted prior to decision making or before completing the task comes under Consulted. These are the stakeholders to whom we  can reach to seek advice or any opinion. Those stakeholders whose opinion are required during the process or design like subject matter expert(SME) are comes under consulted. The consulted group are those people who  need to have a say somewhere in the process either at the process design stage or during the operation of the process in a project management. Consulted group are to have two way communication. for example quality and compliance or subject matter expert(SME)

Informed:- In RACi Matrix there are some people who must be informed. The informed group role is just to be informed that something is happening in the project management. The informed group will have one way communication like often keep them up to date about the progress of the project, completion of the task or deliverables. like customers or higher management these are the people need to be informed during the project development.