Answering the 'Why?' question.

The objective statement should answer the 'why' question - the most important that can be asked of a project manager.  Why are we considering this project?  What purpose or function will it serve? What problem does it solve? What business need does it fulfil?   Do the promised benefits align with strategic organisational directions as articulated in an overarching business or strategic plan?

The key to writing good project objectives is to focus on the positive outcomes that will result after the completion of the project - the measurable benefits that the project will yield. Writing project objectives is principally about stating these benefits, the target group or area at which they are aimed and the timeframe during which they are expected to be realised.  It is not about describing deliverables which answer the 'what?' and 'how?' questions.  This will be attended to in a later article.


What is 'Project Success'?

In essence, this is defined by the objective statement.  The concept of project benefits is central to project success. A project will be deemed successful if it delivers its promised benefits. What about on time and on budget? These are different questions, relating to how well the project is managed. Important as they are, these are not the focus of a quest to clarify objectives. Besides, in the end we would rather have a successful project a little late and over budget than a beautifully managed disaster which fails to deliver on promises.


The SMARTA criteria

Good project objectives should satisfy the SMARTA criteria. That is, they should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-framed and Agreed or Authorised.  'Specific' simply means we should avoid vagueness, generalities and fuzzy thinking. If the benefits are related to cost reductions we need to identify these savings clearly and precisely.  Attaching measures to objectives is necessary if their ultimate realisation is to be verifiable. The following table shows some examples of measures in various contexts.

However, It is not always easy to 'measure; benefits. Projects that involve design, research, analysis, writing or the development of software, policy or curricula and similar types of work provide a greater challenge and are very much more difficult to measure. In most cases benefits are not quantifiable at all and a qualitative description needs to be given - that is a paragraph or two providing a word-picture of how the project's arena will appear once the benefits have had a chance to be bedded down after the completion of the deliverables.  It is usually regarded as advisable to give several different examples or types of evidence for this success, since their lack of precision could mean that not any one of them can be relied upon to provide a clear-cut validation.  This approach is sometimes called 'triangulation' - a surveying term often used in the social sciences.

'Achievable' simply means at this stage we feel good enough about the project to continue its planning.  It usually implies that no technical obstacles stand in the way of the project but as a criterion it is much less stringent than 'feasibility' which suggests a host of additional criteria such as affordability, strategic attractiveness, resource availability, logistical convenience among others.

'Time-framed' refers not to how long the project will take to complete but rather is a specification of an interval thereafter after which benefit realisation will be clearly evident. It is important to remember that the objective statement serves two purposes:  Not only does it provide a beacon of light for the running of the project, giving it direction and purpose but also acts as a guide for those charged with evaluating its success at the end of the interval.

'Authorised' implies that the project owner, key stakeholders and other important figures have provided written support for the project before it gets off the ground and that the objectives appeal to an audience wider than just their architects.

The following example of an objective statement satisfies the SMARTA criteria:

• To reduce the number of traffic accidents at intersection A by 75% by June 2015.
• To improve throughput in the dispatch area by 5 deliveries per day by December 2014.
• To reduce the number of complaint calls received about the company's billing system by half wthin six months of the project's closure.

Notice that they begin with positive change words (increase, improve) which helps to catch the reader's attention in emphasising the benefits they promise.