5 Questions to Ask in a Steering Committee to Know If Your ERP Project Is Actually Under Control
If you’re sponsoring an ERP program, this feeling may be familiar.
Steering committee meetings are full.
Slides are polished.
Updates are confident.
Yet you leave the room with a lingering doubt:
Are we really in control — or just tracking activity?
That doubt is rarely about effort or competence.
It’s usually a sign that the steering committee isn’t surfacing reality, only progress.
This is a common pattern in ERP programs where governance exists formally, but not operationally — a theme explored in FitGap’s analysis of ERP governance beyond theory.
These Are Not Status Questions. They’re Diagnostic.
A steering committee exists to reduce uncertainty and force decisions.
If the questions asked can be answered with “in progress”, the project will drift — quietly.
The five questions below work at any stage of an ERP implementation (build, UAT, dress rehearsal) and immediately reveal whether the program is actually under control.
1. Chart of Accounts & Dimensions
What reporting needs have already been validated against the new chart of accounts and dimensions — and what design gaps are still unresolved?
Why this matters:
A chart of accounts can be technically complete while still failing real management and statutory reporting needs.
What the steering committee should hear:
- Which management reports were validated against the new structure
- What still doesn’t reconcile or make sense
- Which design decisions remain open — and who owns them
Red flag answers:
- “The mapping is done”
- “Finance signed it off”
- “We’ll adjust after go-live”
This issue often resurfaces late because reporting design decisions were treated as configuration details instead of business decisions — a frequent cause of downstream friction in ERP programs (related analysis).
2. Data Migration & Dress Rehearsal
Have we run at least one full dress rehearsal using real or production-like data — and what were the top three failures or surprises?
Why this matters:
Migration risk only becomes visible under volume, performance, and reconciliation pressure.
What the steering committee should hear:
- Error and rejection rates
- Reconciliation breaks and root causes
- Performance or timing issues
Red flag answers:
- “The migration worked overall”
- “Issues were minor”
- “We’ll clean it up in the next cycle”
Many ERP failures attributed to “data quality” are actually failures to confront these realities early enough (see how data issues surface late).
3. Key User Readiness
Which key user groups could run their process tomorrow with minimal project support — and which ones clearly could not?
Why this matters:
Readiness is uneven by nature. Pretending otherwise hides operational risk.
What the steering committee should hear:
- A clear list by process or function
- Where dependency on the project team remains high
- Concrete readiness gaps
Red flag answers:
- “Users are comfortable”
- “Training is ongoing”
- “It depends”
User readiness is as much a human and organizational issue as a system one — often underestimated in ERP programs (related perspective).
4. Adoption of Key Decisions
Which major project decisions have been made, but are still being quietly worked around in day-to-day operations?
Why this matters:
Decisions that exist only in steering decks don’t protect the project.
What the steering committee should hear:
- Where Excel or legacy habits persist
- Which rules or designs people don’t behave as if they’re real
- Why
Red flag answers:
- “People just need more time”
- “Change management is addressing it”
- Silence
This gap between decision and behavior is often the earliest signal of governance breakdown.
5. End-to-End Testing Under Real Constraints
Which critical process has been tested end-to-end under realistic conditions — including volumes, cut-offs, approvals, and security roles — and what broke?
Why this matters:
Most testing succeeds because it avoids reality.
“Realistic” means:
- Correct security roles (not admin access)
- Actual approval paths
- Real transaction volumes and timing
- Month-end or operational pressure
Red flag answers:
- “The scenario was tested successfully”
- “We haven’t tested with final roles yet”
- “That will be addressed later”
When security roles and approvals are ignored during testing, go-live issues are almost guaranteed.
Final Thought
If these questions don’t get clear, evidence-based answers, the project is already drifting — even if every milestone is green.
Steering committees don’t fail because people don’t work hard.
They fail because they don’t force clarity early enough.
Governance is not about visibility.
It’s about making reality unavoidable.
This article is part of the FitGap Finance series — a business-first perspective on ERP governance, decision-making, and control beyond go-live.
