Every successful engineering project deck has these five sections, does yours?

1 min read

All successful projects have something in common. They communicate their story well across various channels. One such channel is a slide deck; the most successful ones have these five sections.

Problem

  • Clearly describe the origin of the problem
  • Add metrics that demonstrate the problem
  • Explain why the problem is actually a problem (you can use the 5 why framework here)
  • Explain when this problem will become a serious problem

Solution

  • How the problem will be solved
  • What will new systems will be built
  • Technical deep-dive on the systems being built

Milestone

  • The sequence of sub-projects that needs to be executed
  • note - this is not status, but just an overview of the entire project milestones
  • Name your milestones as M1, M2, and so on if the project spans more than two quarters.

Current Status

  • Where in the milestone journey are you?
  • Confidence in completing the upcoming milestone on time.
  • Blockers to get there and leadership asks.
  • Resourcing gaps if you need more people

Team

  • List of members working on it
  • Dependent teams that have to participate in the project
  • Impacted teams once the project is launched

The order of the sections depends on the audience.