Responsibilities often appear clear until a project reaches a difficult decision. Who was expected to validate the calculation? Who could authorize the change? Who had to update the model? Who needed to inform construction? When the answer depends on memory, a meeting or "the way we usually do it," the project already has a governance risk.
A RACI matrix turns those assumptions into visible agreements. Its value, however, does not come from filling a grid with letters. It comes from connecting every activity and decision to the person who performs the work, the authority that owns the outcome, the people who must be consulted and those who need the information.
At SORA, that clarity supports technical continuity:
Engineering → Information → Coordination → Construction → Commissioning → Handover
A decision is not complete unless the team can identify who produced it, who is accountable for it, who should have contributed and who needs it to continue the work.
What RACI means
RACI distinguishes four types of participation:
- R — Responsible: performs the activity or produces the deliverable.
- A — Accountable: owns the outcome and has authority to decide or approve.
- C — Consulted: contributes before the decision through two-way communication.
- I — Informed: receives information after the decision through one-way communication.
The Association for Project Management recommends that every task have someone responsible and someone accountable, with no more than one final accountable person. This addresses two common failures: work that nobody owns and decisions that several people believe they can approve.
An activity may need several responsible contributors or consulted specialists. Accountability should remain unambiguous. Two "A" assignments usually mean the project has not yet decided who has final authority.
Why generic RACI charts fail
A matrix may be formally complete and still provide little value when it:
- uses job titles that do not match the actual organization;
- assigns letters to activities that are too broad;
- does not identify the deliverable or evidence associated with the work;
- treats review, approval, authorization and acceptance as interchangeable;
- combines production and verification without considering independence;
- is created at project initiation and never updated;
- marks everyone as informed without defining when or how;
- is treated as a substitute for contracts, professional duties or legal authority.
RACI cannot repair a poor organization by itself. It makes the contradictions visible so the team can resolve them before they affect delivery.
From job titles to functional roles
Project organizations change. A small company may combine several functions in one person, while a complex programme may distribute them across multiple organizations. A reusable matrix should therefore begin with functional roles and then map them to real people.
The public version of SORA RACI · Technical Continuity uses ten adaptable functions:
- Client or appointing party.
- Project management.
- Engineering lead.
- Information manager.
- BIM lead or coordinator.
- Discipline lead.
- Production or modelling.
- Independent QA/QC.
- Construction or contractor.
- Commissioning or operations.
One person or organization may occupy more than one role, but concentration must be reviewed when it compromises independence. The producer of a deliverable should not be its only quality verifier.
RACI across technical continuity
The toolkit contains 28 critical activities across governance, engineering, information/BIM, coordination, documentation, construction, commissioning and handover. The current spreadsheet interface is in Spanish; an English interface has not been published yet.
Each row connects:
- an activity or decision;
- the expected deliverable or evidence;
- participating roles;
- the number of accountable and responsible assignments;
- applicability to the project scope.
The APPLICABLE field allows teams to tailor the matrix without deleting activities. This preserves the reference structure and makes exclusions visible. An activity should be marked not applicable because of the contractual or technical scope—not because its owner has not yet been identified.
Across two verification activities—BIM model coordination and documentation deliverable control—the matrix assigns Independent QA/QC as Responsible for the verification and Production/Modelling as Consulted, not the reverse: the team that produced the deliverable still contributes as a source of information, but the verification no longer rests with the same person or organization that produced it.
The governance gate
The dashboard checks five conditions before the matrix can be considered ready for approval:
- At least one applicable activity exists.
- Project data and real participants have been completed.
- Every applicable activity has exactly one A.
- Every applicable activity has at least one R.
- Production/Modelling and Independent QA/QC are not assigned to the same person or organization.
The resulting gate can display:
- SCOPE NOT CONFIGURED;
- CONFIGURATION INCOMPLETE;
- CORRECT RACI;
- REVIEW INDEPENDENCE;
- READY FOR APPROVAL.
REVIEW INDEPENDENCE blocks approval specifically when the fifth condition fails, even if the first four are otherwise correct—a matrix can be formally complete and still not be ready, if the producer and the verifier are the same party.
"Ready" does not mean approved. The parties with actual authority must review and accept the matrix. It does not replace contracts, organization charts, job descriptions, procedures, professional licences or regulatory duties.
Relationship with ISO 19650
ISO 19650-2 structures information management during the delivery phase, while ISO 19650-4 provides detailed processes and decision criteria for information exchanges. A RACI matrix can support clarity around production, review, authorization, exchange and acceptance, but the acronym RACI does not make the spreadsheet an ISO certification.
The toolkit uses these processes as a governance framework and must be adapted to the contractually applicable editions, the BEP, information requirements and the actual project organization.
How to use the resource
- Define the project, phase and scope.
- Map real people or organizations to the functional roles.
- Review the 28 activities and determine which apply.
- Adjust assignments collaboratively with the people performing the work.
- Resolve duplicate accountability, unowned activities and independence conflicts.
- Approve the matrix and control its version.
- Review it when scope, organization, suppliers or project gates change.
A good RACI matrix does not eliminate problems, but it prevents them from arriving disguised as misunderstandings.
References
Does your organization need a tool adapted to its processes?
Tell us about the context, roles, deliverables and controls you need. SORA can help structure a tailored technical solution and define the right scope.
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