What's the right pace for steering bodies?

Steering committees are fundamental to the development and sustainability of all your projects. They are numerous and play an essential role in monitoring your projects and managing change. Indeed, in these times of great change, the pace has accelerated prodigiously. A strategic project that is difficult to manage obviously needs to be monitored more closely than an "ancillary" project of lesser difficulty.
Similarly, a project with a high frequency of deliverables (at least 1/week) requires closer attention. This is in contrast to a project with monthly milestones. Then, a "short" project (less than 2 months) does not allow us to delay the detection of a drift.

In this article, you will find information on the steering bodies that you absolutely must know about:

Set the pace for your project management meetings

We distinguish 3 types of instances based on different temporalities:

What are the different steering bodies and how often do they meet?

First of all, we generally identify two types of authority. On the one hand, we have "project bodies", and on the other, "project portfolio bodies". Both meet specific expectations and frequency of meetings.

Project bodies :

Themes What the court said Frequency

Examples


Operational

 

Day-to-day" project management.
We identify difficulties encountered and new tasks to be carried out.
Daily

or Weekly

Project committee

Daily meeting

Site meeting


Tactics

Management of major project sequences.
Tasks are identified and scheduled.
Monthly
End of phase
Committee schedule

Progress review

Retrospective / Sprint launch


Strategic

Project contract management. We ensure that projects are in line with the project contract (scope, deadlines, cost), and we formalize amendments to project contracts if changes are necessary.Monthly

Quarter

Steering Committee

Program Committee

 

Project portfolio bodies :

Themes

What the proceedings have in storeCurrent frequency

Examples


Go / No Go project

 

When decisions are made to launch projects.
When trade-offs are made between the demands made by stakeholders.
Quarter

Semester

Year

Investment Committee

Management Committee


Operational

 

Operational management of projects, integrating the effects of adherence to other projects.
Information gathering and decision-making body.
Bi-weekly

Monthly

Project review

Project portfolio review


Budget

Allocation of financial resources to portfolio projects.
Arbitration on requests for decisions from steering committees.
On schedule to meet budget deadlines

Quarter

Semester

Year

Budget preparation

Forecast magazine


Strategic

Structured as a strategic project.
Progress report to the Executive Committee or General Management. Information and decision-making body.
At launchHalf-yearly or annual management reviewProgram Committee

Roadmap Committee

Strategic Planning Committee


Resource

Allocation of human resources to projects / Staffing decisions.
HRD may be involved for projects involving training and recruitment.
Weekly
(this is the case for service companies, for example) Monthly
Production Committee

Staffing Committee

Assignment committee

How do you manage your project governance bodies?

Discover the software in video Project Monitor

The "ingredients" for good project management

Any piloting activity must take them into account. Whether it's a multinational company, a fighter jet or a project. Piloting is the action that transforms measurement into correction, with decisions taken by the pilot and subsequent actions.

Focus on the project steering committee

The Project Steering Committee (Comité de pilotage d'un projet - Copil) is a key player in project management.
It is made up of a cross-functional project team with two main missions:
- to ensure that projects run smoothly
- to validate strategic choices

The Copil is generally made up of competent representatives from the company or local authority departments directly involved in the project. At all times, this steering committee takes the necessary steps to ensure that the project achieves its objectives. Its role is also to monitor the project's progress at all times.

This steering body plays a key role in the management of large-scale projects.
It acts as an intermediary between the company's strategic and operational steering bodies.
This body gives a strong impetus to all project managers.

It decides on the scope of projects based on the following elements:

The Daily Meeting, the daily meeting place to keep abreast of current projects

Remote management of steering bodies using a PPM tool

daily-meeting-kanban-project-monitor