Steering committee deck template: the five slides that get decisions
A steering committee deck that gets decisions has five slides: a one-page portfolio status, the budget seen through its year-end forecast, the top risks with their owners, the decisions requested, each phrased as a closed question with costed options and a recommendation, and the next milestones with the actions agreed. Slide 4 is the reason the meeting exists; the other four give the committee what it needs to answer it. Sent to the sponsors ahead of the meeting and run on a fixed time box, this deck fits a twenty-minute committee.
What a steering committee is for
A steering committee is not a project review. It is where the decisions that project managers cannot take alone are made: scope, money, dates, priorities, resources. Everything in the deck should either support one of those decisions or show that a decision taken last time is being carried out. Green projects are noted, not presented; status updates read aloud are a sign the deck is doing the wrong job.
For a reference text on project governance, ISO 21502:2020, Project, programme and portfolio management — Guidance on project management, gives guidelines for project management applicable to any organisation and any type of project. It does not prescribe a deck format; the five slides below are one way to put decision-making first.
Slide 1: one-page status
One table, one row per project, read from the portfolio tab rather than rewritten:
| Column | Content | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Project, priority | Code, name, P1 to P4 | Sets the order of the discussion |
| RAG | Computed from delay and budget drift | A measurement, not an opinion |
| Delay | Forecast end minus baseline end, in days | Measured against the original commitment |
| Next milestone | Name and date | What the committee should expect next time |
| Decision required | Yes or No, with a pointer to slide 4 | Links status to the agenda |
Sort by RAG from red to green, then by priority. If a red project has "No" in the last column, ask why before the meeting, not during it.
Slides 2 and 3: budget and risks
Slide 2: budget
Show the revised budget, committed spend, actuals to date and the year-end forecast, with the forecast variance per line on alert. The forecast is the figure to discuss: actuals say what has happened, the forecast says what will happen if nothing is decided. The way that forecast is built, line by line, is explained in the IT budget template with CapEx, OpEx and forecast.
Slide 3: top risks
Five open risks at most, ranked by score (probability × severity), each with an owner, a due date and one line on what the committee must do: fund a mitigation, accept the risk, or nothing. A risk with no owner and no date is not being managed, and the slide makes that visible.
Slide 4: decisions requested, phrased to be decided
Each decision fits in four lines: a closed question, two or three costed options, the recommendation, and what exactly the committee must say. Compare:
| Hard to decide | Ready to decide |
|---|---|
| "Update on the finance module timeline" | "Do we approve moving go-live from 15 December 2026 to 29 January 2027?" |
| "Budget pressure on testing" | "Option A: keep the date, reduced testing, no extra cost. Option B: move the date, full testing, 40 of additional budget for parallel running." |
| "The team suggests a delay" | "Recommendation: option B, funded from the contingency reserve." |
| "Next steps to be defined" | "Decision required: yes or no on option B, and the name of the sponsor who sets the cut-over window." |
The figures in that example are fictitious, in thousands of any currency. For entities within the scope of NIS 2, some approvals must come from management: under Article 20(1) of the NIS 2 Directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2555), the management bodies of essential and important entities approve the cybersecurity risk-management measures taken to comply with Article 21 and oversee their implementation; a steering committee with the right members is one place to record that approval. The measures themselves are listed in the NIS 2 compliance checklist.
Slide 5: next milestones
The milestones due before the next committee, and the actions created today with owner and due date. Reading this slide back aloud at the end of the meeting is a simple quality check: if nobody can name the owner of an action, it has not been decided.
Running the meeting in 20 minutes
- Minutes 0 to 2, context: status date, what changed since the last committee, follow-up of the last decisions and overdue actions.
- Minutes 2 to 5, indicators: comment only on amber and red; for the budget, the forecast and its variance.
- Minutes 5 to 15, decisions: slide 4, from P1 to P4. Situation in one sentence, the question, the options, the recommendation. Decide, record.
- Minutes 15 to 18, risks: does the committee need to act? If not, move on.
- Minutes 18 to 20, next steps: read back decisions and actions with owners and dates; set the next date.
The meeting does not follow the slide order: decisions come before risks, so that the time box protects them. Three things stop the clock: a round-table of every project, a debate about the figures (correct the source and bring the item back), and a new topic raised in the room, which goes into the log as an action to investigate. Within the hour after the meeting, log the decisions and actions and send the record.
FAQ
When should the deck go to the sponsors?
Early enough to be read before the meeting; the cockpit's method sends the pack 48 hours ahead. A deck discovered in the room turns the committee into a reading session.
Should every project appear in the deck?
On slide 1, yes, as one row each. In the discussion, no: only the projects with a decision on slide 4 or a red status without a plan.
What if a sponsor disputes the figures?
The item stops there. The source tab is corrected after the meeting and the decision comes back to the next committee with agreed figures; arguing numbers in the room uses the time meant for decisions.