« Project Management Process - Phase 3 - Implementing - Acceptance Testing
The Project Organization and Management By Exception »

5 Steps In Creating Project Objectives

February 28, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices, Project Plan Development

5 Steps In Creating Project Objectives
By Keith Mathis - PM Expert Live

  1. Objectives must support the project’s goal/mission.Interviews set the tone for what is coming down the pipeline with your project. You must acquire correct information in a thorough interview in order to establish relevant objectives to meet the goal of the project. Sometimes you must ask hard questions to discuss the bottom line. Remember, you are in charge of asking questions, and if you are not obtaining beneficial information or if you simply do not understand, you need to rephrase the question. Sometimes it is even good to ask, “What would be good to know about this project that I have not asked you?” The customer will expose extra information that is almost always helpful.

  2. Objectives must have some way of being measured.Evaluate your project’s core objectives; make sure they can be measured for completion. Often, objectives will focus on improvements but with little specifics for measuring progress. It is human nature to want to see success. Do not set your team up for failure with objectives which are too large or unclear. These can not be measured and will only cause frustration and ultimately hurt morale for future projects.

  3. Objectives must have a deadline set for achievement.Don’t just throw out a time or date. If you are just picking a date from the air, then you are doing nothing any different from those who create a project plan without information. Make sure you take into account all the issues the project and the project team are facing. Many objectives will have only a brief statement while others will be numbered with detailed sub points.

  4. Objectives must give team members authority.Authority can be defined as the power, right, and stamp of approval to make decisions. By making an assignment to a particular person, it will become a high priority. Do not be afraid to give people a milestone or a series of tasks which all support a larger piece of the project. By delegating pieces of the project, it is easier for individuals to control and advance the project. Remember, though, people need authority to run their portion of the project. Authority demonstrates trust in that person and gives the freedom to make a certain range of decisions.

  5. Objectives need to be documented.Documentation will keep you and your team focused on the project. Documentation will help clarify where you have been and in what future direction you are headed. Yet, documentation seems to be one of the weakest areas on all project teams. We often close out a project with little or no documentation, and we have no new ideas, processes, or best practices to pass on except what we have kept logged in our memory. Sometimes, we even pitch our project notes taken during meetings throughout the project. Yes, it is important to document all projects and maintain a register of what has been discovered throughout the project. This type of documentation is invaluable for the future establishing of project best practices.

Objectives drive the project forward.

As you have meetings and discuss objectives and deliverables, you need to make sure you are driving the project forward. This is accomplished best by making sure you have action plans and assignments throughout the project. This should include specific actions steps and detailed implementation plans. You also must decide how you will measure each objective or deliverable. This forces you to create progress indicators throughout the project for measuring. This is why you have Gantt charts, time charts and critical path charts to help measure the progress of the project. These charts will be discussed in more detail and with more specifics in future phases. The following chart will demonstrate one way of tracking each action.

Dr. Keith Mathis, founder and CEO of The Mathis Group, specializes in Project Management, Management Leadership, and Marketing training for private businesses and government agencies of all kinds. He offers 33 Project Management courses, is a Project Management Professional, is certified by the Project Management Institute and will customize every training session to your individual company’s needs. The Mathis Group also sponsors www.pmexpertlive.com, which is a powerful project management resource with free reports, podcasts, videos, and a monthly newsletter. He also offers customized management training and coaching on any subject with prolific communication and professionalism.

Share this article:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • blogmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • TwitThis
  • Yahoo! Buzz

Related Articles

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 and is filed under Project Management Best Practices, Project Plan Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 people have left comments

[...] you must regularly check to see if everyone still has the true Project Objective in their hearts and minds (that which is written in the job descriptions) and not some other [...]

Building the Perfect Project Team - PM Hut wrote on April 21, 2009 - 12:04 am | Visit Link

[...] When carrying out risk management, the purpose is to reduce the probability and impact of threats and to increase the probability of opportunities and/or their positive impact. It is helpful to consider that risk is “an event that may all may not occur in the future, but if it does occur it will have an impact on the project objectives“. [...]

Project Risk and Risk Management - PM Hut wrote on October 15, 2009 - 1:36 pm | Visit Link

feel free to leave a comment

Comment Guidelines: Basic XHTML is allowed (a href, strong, em, code). All line breaks and paragraphs are automatically generated. Off-topic or inappropriate comments will be edited or deleted. Email addresses will never be published. Keep it PG-13 people!

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

All fields marked with " * " are required.

Project Management Categories