Team Operations
RACI Matrix vs. DACI: Assign Roles and Decision Rights
Compare RACI and DACI with an original launch example that separates task ownership from decision authority.
What you will learn
- Distinguish a task-responsibility matrix from a decision-role map.
- Assign clear ownership without making every contributor an approver.
- Resolve a disputed decision and record its outcome.
Use RACI to clarify who does and owns a task. Use DACI to clarify how one decision gets made. A person can contribute valuable evidence without having the final decision, and the person driving a decision does not necessarily perform every task that follows.
RACI and DACI answer different questions
Atlassian's RACI guide defines Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. Its DACI playbook defines Driver, Approver, Contributors and Informed. The original example below separates those two views rather than treating the acronyms as interchangeable labels.
In a RACI matrix, “Responsible” means doing the work and “Accountable” means owning its completion under the team's agreed model. In DACI, the Driver gathers the inputs and moves the decision forward; the Approver has the final decision. Confirm these meanings with the people involved.
Do not use a matrix to grant authority someone does not have. If a decision requires another approval under an existing policy, record that constraint. A planning worksheet cannot overrule it.
A fictional launch, first viewed as tasks
A small team is preparing a customer workshop. The names and events are invented for practice.
| Task | Responsible | Accountable | Consulted / informed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prepare the draft agenda | Lena | Marco | Consult Priya on customer questions; inform the presenters |
| Verify the demonstration | Priya | Marco | Consult Lena on timing; inform the host |
| Prepare attendee instructions | Sam | Lena | Consult Priya on access; inform the support contact |
This makes the work legible, but it does not answer a disputed question: should the workshop include a live demonstration or a recording? That needs a separate decision with criteria and authority.
Now map the disputed decision with DACI
| Decision element | Fictional assignment |
|---|---|
| Question | Live demonstration, recording, or no demonstration for this workshop? |
| Driver | Lena collects rehearsal results, access constraints and presenter availability |
| Approver | Marco decides within the existing launch-approval policy |
| Contributors | Priya supplies technical evidence; Sam supplies attendee support considerations |
| Informed | Presenters and support receive the final format and its implications |
| Decision record | Chosen option, reason, unresolved risk, owner and date |
Suppose the approved choice is a recording because the live environment has an unresolved access problem. That is a decision, not a claim that the live demo works. The team must label the recording honestly and update the attendee instructions.
Tasks then change: Priya prepares the approved recording, Sam updates instructions and Lena checks the agenda. The decision map and task map stay connected without becoming the same document.
Copyable AI prompt
Try this with Aurora AI in Finta, Codex, or Claude. Use only material you are authorized to share, and review the draft before using it.
Using [authorized project brief], [existing approval policy] and [accepted team roles], draft a RACI task map and a separate DACI map for [one decision]. Identify unaccepted roles, missing contributors and authority conflicts. Do not assign new powers or infer agreement. Return a proposed decision record and follow-on task changes for human review. Do not notify people, approve anything or change assignments.Check for gaps and approval overload
Look for tasks with no working owner, decisions with several competing final approvers, contributors who have not been asked for input and informed people who will only discover the result after their work breaks.
Have each named person accept their role. A tidy table does not establish agreement. When someone is unavailable, define the replacement and the authority boundary explicitly rather than assuming the Driver can approve their own proposal.
Keep the scope small: one project task set or one decision. Use the project-management guide for the broader plan and SOP checklist for repeatable execution. Explore Finta's Executive Assistant as a relevant preparation aid, while retaining actual decision authority with the accepted owner.