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Project Management vocabulary · Status Reporting & Governance

Steering committee

Meaning in project management, with examples

/ˈstɪrɪŋ kəˌmɪti/nounCommon term

In project management, steering committee means: A group of senior managers and key stakeholders who give a project direction, make major decisions, approve big changes and help solve escalated problems.

In Turkish: yönlendirme komitesi, yürütme kurulu, proje yönetim kurulu

How it is used

Usually meets monthly or at key milestones, and is often chaired by the project sponsor. People present to, report to or escalate to the steering committee. Often shortened to SteerCo; in PRINCE2 a similar body is the project board.

Example sentences

  1. The steering committee will decide next week whether to delay the launch or reduce the scope.

  2. I need your figures by Monday for the steering committee pack.

Common collocations

  • steering committee meeting
  • present to the steering committee
  • steering committee pack
  • SteerCo
  • project sponsorA senior manager who owns the business reason for a project, secures its funding, makes the big decisions and supports the project manager when problems need higher authority.
  • escalateTo pass a problem, risk or decision to someone with more authority because it cannot be solved at the current level.
  • status reportA short, regular report that tells stakeholders how a project is going: what has been done, what comes next, and the main risks, issues and decisions needed.
  • PMOShort for project management office: a team or department that sets project standards, methods and templates, supports project managers and collects reports across many projects.

More terms: Status Reporting & Governance

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