The context
The company runs several projects involving internal teams, suppliers and customer representatives. Progress is recorded in workstream updates, meeting minutes and action logs. Before each steering committee, the project manager must reconcile this information to present an understandable position at a defined date, including decisions that need the committee's attention.
The problem to solve
Two documents may show different dates or statuses for the same milestone. A pending decision can remain buried in meeting minutes. Without careful preparation, the committee spends time reconstructing events instead of examining the trade-offs and decisions that require the participants' judgment.
The proposed mission
- 01
Define authorized sources and a reporting cut-off date, then test a summary that links each status, risk and decision to the supporting document so reviewers can verify the account.
- 02
Prepare committee material separating confirmed facts, conflicting source information and proposed decisions, without changing the dates, budgets or commitments already recorded in the project's operational systems or documents.
- 03
Have the project manager approve the material and measure the pilot before production, then require authorization for distribution and for any project record update following the committee's decisions.
Intended benefits
- Less manual compilation, leaving more time to prepare decisions.
- Conflicting updates identified before participants discuss progress together in the steering committee.
- Preparation time focused on the decisions and trade-offs requiring the committee's attention.
How to measure the outcome
- Committee preparation time
- Source discrepancies detected
- Corrections before material approval
The baseline and objectives are defined during scoping, then compared with pilot results.