What does each role in the RACI chart mean exactly?

Each role in the RACI chart is tied to the level of ownership and engagement by a person. Roles as assigned for every task.

‎Let’s dive deeper into the roles.

Responsible

The responsible role goes to the "do-er" of the task. This team member is the person who rolls up their sleeves and does the work to complete a task.

For a website development project, the person responsible for tasks like designing the homepage or creating new images for a blog page would be the graphic designer.

Accountable

The accountable role is where the proverbial "buck stops" or the "belly button" of the task. I.e., the person who owns and is the decision maker of a given task.

There can only be one accountable person (belly button). Often the accountable person is also the responsible person (do'er).

Back to the website development project. The project manager is the accountable party for various tasks, as they own the project, know the project standards, and are intimately aware of the project requirements.

It's important to note that the accountable role might not always go to the project manager (or an operational manager). For the new images on the website development project, that role might instead fall on the production specialist.

Consulted

The consulted role is for stakeholders who help with input and insights—they're like project brainstormers and advisors. They offer feedback, suggestions, or domain expertise that might be needed to move tasks forward. This label can go to more than one person.

In the website development project, a user experience expert might be consulted for the homepage design task. Or the content creator might be consulted for blog images.

Informed

The informed role is for stakeholders who don't need a lot of details about tasks, but should still be made aware of task statuses.

For instance, the marketing manager might be informed about the progress of the new blog for the website development project (so they can plan their marketing campaign accordingly), but otherwise not be involved in the project.

The difference between R and A in RACI

The responsible (R) and accountable (A) roles might seem similar, but they're significantly different.

The responsible (R) role is focused on executing the task.

The accountable (A) role owns the task and is responsible for the outcome.

Here's where it gets interesting—sometimes, the same person or role can be "accountable" and "responsible" for a task. This typically occurs when a task requires oversight and hands-on execution by the same person. For instance, in a small startup, the CEO might be responsible for drafting a marketing campaign and accountable for its success.

In project teams with limited resources, this overlap between "R" and "A" happens often. It's a practical way to ensure that someone is closely involved in every aspect of a task and responsible for the outcome.

RACI chart example

Below is a sample RACI chart for the web design project. In this RACI matrix example, we’ve assigned roles to 5 key team members.

‎Let’s zoom in on the RACI roles for Testing and QA

Task: Testing and QA

Responsible: The QA tester will do the actual testing.

Accountable: The QA tester is also the belly button of this task (i.e., owns the task) and will make sure the work meets the company’s editorial standards.

Consulted: The project manager is listed as consulted. Since the project manager is the subject matter expert for the website, the QA expert can go to them for input or help if needed.

Informed: The web designer has an informed role in case problems are found during testing (and can prep for more work).

4 tips for better RACI management

Now, let’s take what we’ve gone over a step further and dive into some pro tips for better RACI management.

‎Follow the rule of 1

There can only be one accountable person per task. That's it.

Having only one "belly button" per task simplifies the approval process, decision-making, and the escalation chain of command.

While it might be discouraged, in reality, there can be more than one responsible person. For example, you might have multiple QA testers responsible for testing a functionality. In cases like this, you can assign one person within that group the accountable role as well.

Only responsible and accountable roles are mandatory for every task. In our example above, there's no need for the content writer to be informed about the web design.