Project goal. What is it and how to define it well? | #15 Getting started with project management

The goal of the project, or what we want to achieve by executing the project, must be clear to everyone involved. For the team, the Project Manager, clients, beneficiaries as well as organization’s management. It is the basis for coordinating activities, setting up individual objectives and allocating tasks. It is by the distance of its achievement the status of the project is measured. So how to define the project goal well?

Project goal – table of contents:

1. Introduction
2. What is the project goal?
3. The most common mistakes when formulating the project goal
4. How to define the project goal?
5. Summary

Introduction

The project goal includes many smaller objectives and milestones. It overrides them all in answering the question “What do we do?”. So what should be included in an apt formulation of a project goal to best support a smooth start to implementation?

What is the project goal?

In the seventh edition of the PMBOK, the project goal is defined as:

“Something towards which actions are directed a strategic position, a goal to achieved, a result to be worked out, a product produced or a service provided.”

Therefore, the project goal does not have to be material. While the outcome of many projects includes the production of an item, content, or software, it can also include a service or a change in the customer or in the organization itself. A project goal is, for example:

• Implementation of the process at customer A by the end of December this year
• Achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025
• Launch of product B on the European market by the end of January 2023
• Organization of a C event for 1,000 people next May
• Optimize expenses and reduce costs by 30% in Company E’s D department
• Reduce the number of complaints by 10% in the next quarter.

The pursued goal is therefore closely related to the project vision, which indicates the reason for pursuing the goal by answering the questions “why?” and “what for?”.

The most common mistakes when formulating the project goal

One of the most common mistakes that arise when formulating a project goal is to assume that everyone involved “knows what to do”. And as a result, there is no need to formulate a project goal or create related documents. Unfortunately, even if this is true in the first week of project implementation, the goal quickly becomes blurred and the scope of the project expands and changes. Therefore, spontaneous project implementation rarely yields the expected results.

For this reason, the achievement of a business project goal is usually determined not only by project documents but also by KPIs, Key Performance Indicators. These usually relate to the realization of the project budget, the quality of execution and the time spent to complete the project. It is with these that the errors that most often occur in formulating the project objective are related. This is because they concern with the fact that the intended result is not measurable in any of the key aspects. It is not specified in it, for example:

• How long is the project expected to take?
• What features does the product have to have for the project to be considered complete?
• What is the impassable limit of the budget allocated for its implementation?

To prevent such problems from occurring, it is worth using proven techniques to correctly define the purpose of the project.

Read also: Types of projects

How to define the project goal?

One of the techniques most commonly applied to formulate a project goal is SMART, which stands for:

• S-Specific (Specific) – the goal should be as specific as possible, but it must cover all spheres of activity included in the project
• M-Measurable – budget, implementation time, number of people involved, and the ability to set objective measures to determine whether the project has been completed are keys to a well-defined project goal
• A-Achievable (Achievable) – due to unpredictable circumstances, it may always happen that the goal cannot be achieved, but at the time of setting it, it should be perceived as achievable by all stakeholders and the project team
• R-Realistic (Relevant) – a project goal is realistic if it is achievable with the resources available to the organization, rather than requiring, for example, a hundred specialists that are difficult to find and hire
• T- Time-bound – the project should have a clearly defined duration and achievement of the intended result.

To see if your project goal meets SMART requirements, try answering the following questions:

• What will happen when the goal is reached?
• Does this goal inspire and motivate you?
• According to your knowledge and experience, is this goal achievable?
• Can progress toward this goal be tracked and how?
• When will the expected result appear?

Summary

A project goal is an articulated and specific answer to the question “What are we doing?”. Although the results will vary greatly depending on the type of project being implemented, each objective should meet the SMART criteria described above. With an implementation framework, it is possible to plan and also determine whether the project is run as planned.

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