Parmatur Pulse – Project goals

The purpose of project goals is to clearly and comprehensively describe what results the project is to deliver and what effects are expected from these results. When working on project goals, knowledge is transferred from the product team (that has prepared basics for the project) and the project team (that will execute the project). The project goals will create a common picture of what the project should achieve and why.

Results from the workshop

Objectives and Key Results, OKR, that contains effect goals and product goals with properties and target values.

How to create project goals

Work method. Workshop with participants from project management, project team members and the product team. Use the nominal group technique.

Premises and material. Workshop room. Whiteboard, post-it notes and pens/markers.

Step 1.

Define a vision for the project. A vision should :

• Be brief.
• Indicate values that the project will create.

Step 2.

Identify effect goals that are to be achieved with the project.

• What customer needs will be satisfied?
• What problems will be solved?
• What opportunities will be realised?
• Is the intent to save money and cut cost?

Assess each post-it note – is it an effect goal and is it relevant for this project? Any product goals can be put aside for later.

Sort and group the post-it notes. Add a heading to each group of effect goals. Remove post-it notes not valid.

Step 3.

Define properties and target values for each effect goal. Here you state how the effect can be measured in concrete terms. How do you know that the effect has been achieved? How far do you wish to go within each effect goal?

Work with one effect goal at a time. It is a good idea to work with several possible properties and target values. Mark questionable properties and target values with a question mark for later investigation.

Step 4.

Identify product goals.

• What must the project deliver in order to achieve the effect goals?
• What are the key functions?
• What must absolutely be included?

Assess each post-it note. Is it a product goal? Is it relevant for this project? Subordinate results are put aside and saved for later planning.

Sort and group the post-it notes. Add a heading to each group of product goals. Remove post-it notes not valid.

Link the product goals to effect goals. To what effect goal does this product goal contribute?

Step 5.

Define properties and target values for each product goal. State how the product goals are to be measured and what performance is needed in order to achieve the effect goals.

Work with one product goal at a time. It is a good idea to work with several possible properties and target values. Mark questionable properties and target values with a question mark for later investigation.

Visually represent the results

The project goals are documented in a mind-map as above.

Parmatur Pulse by Parmatur HB is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.