How do you set project goals? How do you monitor the progress of goals?

First step in project management is to set the project goal if we want long term vision in our product or specific system. By setting project goal it will ensure the hassle free execution. Every person in team should know the clear idea of project goal. Every stakeholder (Client, Business people) and each of the team members should be on the same page. W first must prioritize the short term goals but it is also important long term growth of the organization.

There are few steps to set the project goal:

Step 1. We must identify the goal.

Step 2. We should define the S.M.A.R.T. goals

Step 3. Action plan should be created.

Step 4. Set plan convert into action

Step 5. Monitoring the project execution

1. What does mean by the identify the goals

This is the most important step in the project. If we don’t identify the project goal then we can not determine anything. We will simply identify what will be more important. When we initiate the project then it is essential three parts of the project- clients, managers and team members. Then everyone will contribute their ideas and will discuss and identify what will be achieved during the project and what will be the end goal. From all this, every person will be involved in the project will understand and study the project. According to that we will plan effective strategy.

2. What does mean by the S.M.A.R.T. goals

In this step we will define the goals which we have identified in the step 1. There are many methods to define the project goals but we will use the S.M.A.R.T. goal method. This method is more suitable than any other method because it covers all the aspects which we require in the project.

SMART stands for

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time-Bound

Specific- This is the particular aspect what we want to achieve. Goal should be specific.

e.g. Increase sales by 50%

Measurable- How we can make sure to achieve our goal?

e.g. to increase the marketing and SEO traffic, increase monthly users

Achievable-  In this point we should give a reality check that our goal should be realistic. In short it means goal should be achievable.How we can achieve this goal and how much is realistic?

Realistic- The goal must be realistic so within resource and time we can achieve. Goal should be real it means it can reachable.

Time-Bound- It should have start and finish date. This part of the SMART goal criteria will help us to define task. It describes how much time we will take to finish our goal

A time bound goal has following questions like When, Can we do in three months now?

3. Action plan should be created.

Once we have set the project goals, then we will do the action plan. We know what we want to do now in this step we will get to know how we are going to do to get everything done.

To create the action plan we will need following steps,

Who requires the part of the project, who will work on particular task, what will be short term goal, what is the deadline to complete the goal.Once we get answers of all these questions then it is necessary to document all the data and we will have clear idea that how goal can be achieved.

4. Set plan convert into action

Once we have done the creating action plan then in the next step we will set plan into action.In this actions first we will assign the tasks to individual team member. Then we will set the deadline for task. So in short we will have the proper action for the planning which we have done to achieve our goal.

5. Monitoring the project execution

This is the last step in the project goal. It is important to monitor the performance of the on going project. It is the crucial part of the project. Project manager should monitor the project execution. He is the on who monitor the performance and make sure that everything is on the track. It ensures that all the quality standards are met. Within the specific deadline we can check we have achieved our goal or not. For the perfect project execution we can deploy the project management software like Proprofs project.