The role of a project Steering Committee

Defining the Steering Committee

The Steering Committee is responsible for the success of a project. Anyone puzzled by this statement adheres to traditional project management, which views projects as delivery tasks and holds the project manager responsible for the successful completion of these tasks.

Authority and responsibility in project management

Henri Fayol, the founder of modern administrative theory, published 14 management principles in 1916. One of these principles is “Authority and Responsibility”, which states that authority and responsibility must always be congruent. In other words, the area where one can determine how things are done is exactly the area for which one is responsible, and vice versa.

The project manager’s role and limitations

When viewing projects as a whole, as a customer-supplier relationship, it immediately becomes apparent that the project manager cannot be responsible for a project due to a lack of necessary authority. The project manager is not the superior of all resources. Traditional attempts to authorize the project manager, for example, through a matrix or project organization, often fail due to the surrounding, unaligned incentive systems (departmental goal agreements, etc.).

The importance of a project owner

Every project needs a project owner from the company’s management team to be successful. This person represents the company’s interests and has sufficient authority to make final decisions within the project. This person chairs the Steering Committee. Ideally, this is reflected through roles, commonly referred to as e.g. Executive, Sponsor, Project Owner.

Composition of the Steering Committee

The determination of the remaining members of a Steering Committee arises from the following considerations: Every project has at least three primary interests (company, users, and suppliers). This means that user and supplier representatives are also needed.

• The user interest is: “Will we get exactly what we need?”
• The company’s interest is: “Do we want to finance the project? What benefit do we gain from it?”
• The supplier’s interest is: “Can we produce this in the desired quality? Is it technically feasible?”

This leads to further roles such as user representative and supplier representative. Ideally, the criteria for filling these roles specify that a person can only assume the role if they have authority over the respective resources.

Ensuring manageable resources and conflict resolution

The superiors of the resources must be in the Steering Committee. This solves several problems at once. The resources are now manageable, the project manager no longer needs artificial authority, conflicts between project and line can be resolved, the Steering Committee is responsible for resource procurement, and it approves plans and qualities.

Integrating phased approaches and Management by Exception

If integrated with concepts such as a phased approach and Management by Exception, the Steering Committee can be enabled to fulfill its responsibility for project success.

In summary, the Steering Committee plays a pivotal role in project management by ensuring that the necessary authority and responsibility are aligned, that key interests are represented, and that conflicts are resolved efficiently, thereby driving the project towards success.