COEPD – Center of Excellence for Professional Development Happy Learning
A project goal refers to desired outcome of a project after the completion of the project. It defines the end result of the project. They are high-level statements and gives you overall context that what will be accomplished in the project. The goals of the project can be set by using the following steps
Step1-Identify what are your goals
This is the first step of setting a goal because nothing can be determined without identifying your goals. So how can we identify project goals? – By identifying the things which are important in the project. When undertaking a project, it is important to have 3 parties i.e. client, manager and the team as all of them are going to work closely together throughout the project, therefore everyone should be on the same page by discussing about what are the things which would be achieved through this project and what would be end result or outcome of this project.
Step2-Set SMART Goals
S- specific – What exactly want to do?
Example-Increase Customer acquisition by converting the potential customer i.e. the traffic which come to the website into actual customer by Upgrading the User Interface of the website and solving the glitches so that it would be more user friendly
M- Measurable- How will you get know that you have achieved it?
Example-Customer acquisition will be increased by 20%
A- Achievable-Can it be done? Is it in your power to achieve it?
Example-The It team has the skills to make this possible
R-Realistic/Relevant-Is your goal attainable? Can you realistically achieve it? How does this align with the overall goal of this organization? Is this the most important thing we need to be working on right now?
Example-This will increase customer acquisition and as a result the profit would be increased
T-Time bound-When exactly you want to achieve it?
Example-These should be completed within 6 months.
Step3-Creating a plan for action
Once the goal for the project has been set, one should start to create an action plan because you already know what to do but now you have to figure out how you have to do
Example- Who are the individuals that will be in the team for project?
How many people do you need?
What will be the short term tasks to complete?
Step4- Set plan into action
Once you decide your plan of action now you have to bring that plan into reality by actually executing it.
Example
Assigning tasks to individual members so that they know on what they have to work
- Give them deadlines for their tasks
- Providing resources to them that they need so that they can complete their tasks on time.
You can change or adjust the plan for achieving this goal if necessary e.g. If the team is lacking behind in the tasks because they need more time, then we can extend the deadline or if they are doing things fast then we can shift the deadline a little earlier which would help to save some time.
How do you monitor progress of goals?
For monitoring progress of goals project management software’s, templates, spreadsheets can be used. There timeline of the project, deadlines of the tasks, name of the team members along with the tasks assigned to them etc. can be seen. So that everyone would be aware of each other’s responsibilities. Gantt charts are also used by many project managers for planning the project and to see the overview of the project
Meetings would be held where everyone would report about their progress – how much is done and how much is left. This would be done at fixed time intervals after collecting updates from every member about their progress this would be noted in project management software or spreadsheet. Then you can analyze the data by creating charts or using ready-made charts in software to determine progress of the goals
