Goals are high-level statements, and they can be somewhat vague. They do, however, provide overall context for what the project is set to achieve and how it aligns with business goals. There are different types of goals, such as performance goals, time goals (referring to start and end dates) and resources goals. These three goals compete with one another, therefore, a variable with one will have an impact on the others. Goals must be consistent with the overall corporate strategy. They need to be measurable, achievable, complete, consistent and solution independent. Project objectives are specific and are considered lower-level statements. They describe results: specific, tangible deliverables that the project will produce. Progress towards an objective can usually be tracked with a project dashboard because objectives are often associated with metrics. Objectives are stated clearly as they are going to influence every decision in the project throughout its life cycle. Like project goals, objectives must be measurable as they will decide whether a project is a success or not. Therefore, objectives contain KPI metrics, such as budget, quality and how long it takes to finish the project. The main reason why effective objectives are important is that the more clear your objectives are, the more likely they are to be achieved. Plus, your project will be that much easier to manage. Objectives are crucial for they offer a way to structure the project and validate its success. Therefore, the more effective the objectives, the more successful the project. Think of these objectives as the lodestar your project must follow. They guide you through every aspect of the project and over all its phases. They offer project managers measurable targets to hit and make teams understand what is expected of them. Each project objective needs to meet the SMART criteria. Each objective is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. That means define the objective and make sure that there’s a metric to measure its progress, so you can tell if it’s meeting your baseline expectations. Therefore, it must be achievable or else there’s no sense in trying to reach it. So, be realistic, and make sure the objective is possible and relevant to both the project and the organizational strategy of the business.
The Project Goals template contains all the tools you need to build project goals. The first slide allows you to use the timeline, describe the mission and vision of the company, and refine the percentage of completion by project category. The next slide is presented as a roadmap on which you can indicate your main goals. This template will be useful for planning managers, project managers, logistics and purchasing managers. The template also provides you with the ability to present your goals and assign them to each department that should be responsible for achieving them. Project Goals template can be used by startups, business coaches, development team leaders. All slides of this template are editable depending on your needs.