{"id":20532,"date":"2011-08-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/global2020prd.wpengine.com\/insights\/on-raci\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T09:53:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T09:53:57","slug":"on-raci","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/on-raci\/","title":{"rendered":"What is RACI?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Trying to seek order where there is none, seeking to understand \u2018how it works\u2019, is a fairly human reaction. For people working within matrixed organizations, it\u2019s natural, therefore, to try and map processes or structures as part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/clarity-in-a-matrix-organization-a-balanced-guide-to-role-clarity-alignment-and-ambiguity\/\">bringing clarity to their matrix organization.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But for most networked or matrixed organizations this is such a complex task that by the time you have finished the whole thing has probably changed, and there are so many \u2018ifs, buts and maybes\u2019 that the whole thing becomes pointless.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most commonly used tools by people trying to understand a matrix is RACI, a methodology which looks at who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and informed about any given task.<\/p>\n<h3>What does RACI stand for?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0The <strong>R<\/strong>esponsible person does the work \u00a0&#8211; \u00a0\u00a0typically a single person (who may in turn have people responsible to them.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>A <\/strong>is for Accountable (sometimes Approver or Approving Authority are used) and is essentially the person who is answerable for delivery\/non-delivery\/<\/li>\n<li><strong>C i<\/strong>s for Consulted (Some companies often use Counsel in place of consult) \u2013 the topic matter experts whose advice, expertise and experience feed into a project.<\/li>\n<li>And <strong>I <\/strong>is for Informed \u2013 the people who need to know what\u2019s happening.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This in turn becomes jumbled when mapping delegation\/support. Some talk of RASCI, with the \u2018S\u2019 being \u2018Support\u2019 \u2013 the people who help complete the task, others replace the A for Accountable with A for Assists.<\/p>\n<p>There are numerous other permutations, often when there are compliance issues at stake, but it\u2019s probably worth stopping there. It\u2019s irrelevant to this post.<\/p>\n<h3>What are the challenges in using RACI?<\/h3>\n<p>RACI can be useful in defining a major project, but for many people working in a matrix, sitting and analysing all of this information for every activity will burn them out before they\u2019ve started any productive work on any given day. Most operations don\u2019t merit splitting responsible and accountable.<\/p>\n<p>The first challenge is that sticking to a rigid methodology just isn\u2019t feasible if the reason that the matrix structure was adopted \u2013 better use of specialist and limited resources, faster deployment &#8211;\u00a0 is to materialize.<\/p>\n<p>Often the RACI which seeks to bring clarity can raise so many questions that in itself it brings an unnecessary level of complexity.<\/p>\n<p>The bigger challenge is accepting that you can\u2019t always map what\u2019s there. \u00a0In many departments in matrix organizations, there are so many permutations that trying to resolve the RACI could become a full time job in itself.<\/p>\n<p>When we consider why the RACI methodology has been introduced \u2013 traditional hierarchies don\u2019t adequately describe complexities \u2013 it becomes obvious why the reality fails: it seeks to be linear, when the reality is multidimensional.<\/p>\n<p>The methodology is a good cue to thinking about who really needs information, but if formalising it takes longer than a couple of hours, it\u2019s probably not worth the effort. The desire for certainty, for absolute clarity, is understandable, but living with ambiguity is part and parcel of modern working life, where flexibility\u00a0 &#8211; and personal responsibility are the new work-life essentials.<\/p>\n<p>See our overall guide on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/clarity-in-a-matrix-organization-a-balanced-guide-to-role-clarity-alignment-and-ambiguity\/\">creating clarity in the matrix<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trying to seek order where there is none, seeking to understand \u2018how it works\u2019, is a fairly human reaction. For [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":90602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-20532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","type-blog","training-cross-functional-teams","training-matrix-management"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What is RACI? - Global Integration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is RCI, how does it work and what are the limits to its usefulness in working in a matrix organization\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/clarity-in-a-matrix-organization-a-balanced-guide-to-role-clarity-alignment-and-ambiguity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is RACI?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is RCI, how does it work and what are the limits to its usefulness in working in a matrix organization\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/clarity-in-a-matrix-organization-a-balanced-guide-to-role-clarity-alignment-and-ambiguity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Global Integration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-04T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-11T09:53:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Matrix-management-scene-scaled.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1429\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Claire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Claire\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/clarity-in-a-matrix-organization-a-balanced-guide-to-role-clarity-alignment-and-ambiguity\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/on-raci\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Claire\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5949a056696166ef0cd8522506b63261\"},\"headline\":\"What is RACI?\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-08-04T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-11T09:53:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/on-raci\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":533,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/clarity-in-a-matrix-organization-a-balanced-guide-to-role-clarity-alignment-and-ambiguity\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/Matrix-management-scene-scaled.webp\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/on-raci\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/clarity-in-a-matrix-organization-a-balanced-guide-to-role-clarity-alignment-and-ambiguity\\\/\",\"name\":\"What is RACI? 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