RASCI Charts

RASCI charts* can assist your team in determining content roles for each team member. RASCI stands for...

• Responsible: the person/people with responsibility and accountability to lead this portion of the project.
• Authority: the person/people who must approve resource distribution/allocation.
• Support: the person/people who will work on, support, and actively contribute to achievement of a particular goal.
• Consult: people who should be consulted throughout the project in regards to a particular goal, but will not actively contribute to its achievement.
• Inform: people who should be aware of progress toward the goal, but who do not actively contribute to goal achievement.

These roles can be defined using a RASCI chart, like this hypothetical example:

Team members	Goals
	Develop new customer service interface	Develop, test, and rollout internal user training	Develop & test supporting IT infrastructure	Customer-facing marketing/ communication
Celeste	R, A	A	A	A
Shawn	C	C	R	I
Roberta	I	R	I	I
Bob	S	C	S	I
Dawn	C	C	I	R
Noah	I	S	I	S

This chart lists all team members and the major project goals identified in Stage 3, with specific content-related roles identified for each person as related to each role (note that all team members do not necessarily have to have a role associated with each and every goal). 

Celeste is the team leader in this example. This role in her organization gives her the authority to allocate resources (this authority may be more widely distributed in your organization or team). Beyond responsibility for the whole project, Celeste is also responsible for the new customer service interface.

The chart goes on to show who is responsible for  each of the remaining goals, who will be working on those goals (support), along with consulting and informing roles.

Team RASCI Chart Development Exercise

Your team likely has a good idea regarding team member technical, management and leadership competencies based on your team development exercise from Stage 2. Use this knowledge to develop your RASCI chart. This can be accomplished through seeking volunteers, role assignment, or some combination of the two. Use the method(s) that best suit your team’s culture (1) an open meeting in which team members volunteer for specific roles, or (2) a more directive approach managed by the team leader.

Volunteer in a virtual synchronous or asynchronous meeting.

1. Create an online RASCI chart from this Google Docs template, providing all team members with access.
2. Request team members volunteer for roles appropriate to their competencies and development priorities, and fill-in the chart (either real-time during your synchronous meeting or by a due date for your asynchronous meeting).
3. Discuss any duplication or desired shared roles, coming to agreement on the best fit(s) for individual team members and the team.

Team Leader Decides

1. Team leader creates a draft RASCI chart for review and discussion by the team in a synchronous or asynchronous meeting.
2. Team leader facilitates a discussion (synchronous meeting) or reaches out to each individual team member (asynchronous meeting) to ensure team members are happy with their assignments, and they have the skills/resources to be successful. 

Note that you’ll want to minimize duplicate or shared authority and responsibility roles, as this can lead to confusion between team members later in the project. Such sharing may be appropriate, however, when the role is a developmental assignment.

CLICK HERE for the RASCI chart template (you'll need to be logged into your Google account).

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*This material is adapted from Sibbet (2011) and Galbraith, Downey and Kates (2002).

CLICK HERE for references.