Goals and objectives

What this guide covers

A brief overview of project goals and objectives.

What are goals and objectives?

Project goals are broad, brief statements of intent that provide focus or vision for planning. Goals are deliberately non-specific, they are typically not measurable and are often un-attainable.

For example:

"The goal of this project is that visitors to the website will be convinced that global warming exists."

Project objectives are the realistic targets that help us to achieve the project goals. Informally, the objective of a project can be defined by completing the statement:

"The project will be regarded as a success if .... "

It is important to focus on what will be put in place, rather than how activities will be carried out.

Writing SMART objectives

What is SMART?

SMART is an acronym used in writing objectives.

Specific: should be concrete and well-defined.

Measurable: satisfaction of the objective can be objectively judged.

Achievable: within the power of the team to meet the target.

Relevant: must relate to the true purpose of the project.

Time-constrained: a time point by which the objective should be obtained.

Examples

"By July 1, 2021, the test coverage for the code relating to the fan feedback app will reach at least 90%"

• Specific: related to a specific task on a specific part of the codebase
• Measurable: set a quantifiable goal (90% test coverage)
• Achievable: assume date & goal are achievable
• Relevant: objective relates to the project developed
• Time Constrained: set a deadline (July 1, 2021)

"At the end of this month, our blog will see an 8% lift in traffic by increasing our weekly publishing frequency from five posts per week to eight posts per week." Source: Blog Traffic Goal

• Specific: I want to boost our blog's traffic by increasing our weekly publishing frequency from five to eight times a week. Our two bloggers will increase their workload from writing two posts a week to three posts a week, and our editor will increase her workload from writing one post a week to two posts a week.
• Measurable: Our goal is an 8% increase in traffic.
• Achievable: Our blog traffic increased by 5% last month when we increased our weekly publishing frequency from three to five times a week.
• Relevant: By increasing blog traffic, we'll boost brand awareness and generate more leads, giving sales more opportunities to close.
• Time-Bound: End of this month

Questions to help you apply SMART

SMART is widely used, and you will find plenty of examples online. To help you to write objectives for the coursework project consider:

• Specific
  • What do I want to accomplish with the web app?
  • Why is this goal important?
  • Which resources or limits are involved?
• Measurable
  • How much/many?
  • How will you know when it has been achieved?
• Achievable
  • How can you accomplish this goal?
  • How realistic is it based on constraints such as time, cost, resource availability?
• Relevant
  • Does it seem worthwhile? Does it matter to you?
  • Is it applicable to this project?
• Time-bound
  • When will you achieve this? During the project? After the web app is live and in-use?