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Organizations which do not follow the standards to meet the project goals have very less chances of making the project successful , project are not successful in at least one he key measure over buget,over schedule or do not meet specifications , some research has shown only 34% of projects meet the success criteria and as many as 66% of projects are troubled, few more possible reasons for the project failure which ultimately explains that goals are not met are with no proper business requirements ,insufficient or misallocated resources, lack of training to the teams or project managers, project scope which is unrealistic to meet and the controlling over it ,not able to forecast the risks.
SMART Goals in Project Management
- Specific: Make sure your goals are clearly defined
- Measurable: Make sure your goals are trackable
- Achievable: Make sure your goals are attainable
- Realistic: Make sure your goals are practical
- Time-bound: Make sure your goals have a deadline
Project management is to initiate , plan, execute ,manage and control to meet the project goals, the major project management goals are
Identifying and executing high-impact , high visibility initiatives.
Once the goals are set and created, it’s important to identify the sub-goals and tasks that have the most value and weightage. It will help you align high-impact initiatives with the long-term goals and vision of the organization.
Otherwise, spending time on the tasks that aren’t adding any value –
directly or indirectly isn’t going to produce anything constructive for the project. So, make it a rule to identify and include high-impact tasks while defining and setting goals in the first place.
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Build a framework with strategic enterprise objective.
If smart project goals are the first step that determines the success of a project, then having a solid framework is the second step that could actually seal the deal for a successful project. Build a clear framework that facilitates transparent communication regarding the progress of goals in the form of tasks. Moreover, having a framework provides a structure that keeps team members on track and not lose the sight of the overall picture.
Provide the business needs information with out any ambiguity to senior managers.
Project recovery framework is composed of 4 main stages
- Problem recognition which is problem awareness ,admitting the trouble, conduct a quick honest assessment and decision to recover the project or to kill it.
- Immediate recovery
- Sustained recovery
- Maturity
Productive guidance, efficient communication and apt supervision of the project’s team. Always keep in mind that the success or failure of a project is highly dependent on teamwork, thus, the key to success is always in collaboration. To this end, the establishment of good communication is of major importance. On one hand, information needs to be articulated in a clear, unambiguous and complete way, so everything is comprehended fully by everyone and on the other hand, is the ability to be able listen and receive constructive feedback.
Scope of the project with realistic boundaries.
Every project goal has to have a deadline because goals without deadlines are mere wishes. Making tasks or goals time-bound creates an urgency to not breach the timeline and deliver results in the desired time-frame. Make sure that there is proper resource management so that deadlines don’t suffer.
- Goal 1: Let us fix all the open bugs.
- Goal 2: Fix critical bugs by the end of this weekend by all means.
Of course, the second goal is clear, time-bound and has clear targets which will encourage team members to work accordingly and deliver by all means.
Goal setting isn’t limited to just jotting your goals down on a paper or a project management software and assigning them to team members. Rather it is a complete process which comprises of multiple other factors as well. So, project managers take note of the following things while setting SMART goals:
Work breakdown structure plays one of the crucial role in project management. When we know the requirements, project manager should identify the requirements which are possible and should breakdown the structure in to parts so that each peer will have an opportunity to work on it. For example, when we consider a big project/task it is not possible for a single person to complete it efficiently, with good quality and within specified time. So, when we divide the same task among certain members in a team it will easily completed and when we integrate that it will be a big success which overall helps in an Organizational growth. Work breakdown also involves:
Scheduling
Before starting the project based on the resources availability and average resource development capacity the project is divided in to bits and pieces and specific estimated date is attached to each task. This helps the management team to estimate the project delivery date and estimated time frame which includes all the critical gaps and requirements in any project before its development phase. (Ramos Freire, E.M., Rocha Batista, R. c., & Martinez, M. R. 2016)
Budgeting
Budgeting is the main aspect in any project which is going in to the development phase. Budgeting factors includes Resource coverage, Work environments, Licenses and it also involves direct and indirect costs of the project so that it becomes easier to calculate the overall profit of the project. Some organizations can make a mistake while estimating the project budget which is the ultimate failure of the project in an organization, so we should keep every cost which involves in the project. (Ramos Freire, E.M., Rocha Batista, R. c., & Martinez, M. R. 2016)
Human Resource Planning
Here we decide which work is done by whom and we share the responsibilities of a work. And if there are any dependencies associated to our work we will plan accordingly. We establish roles to every person in the team and we decide hierarchical relationships. (Ramos Freire, E.M., Rocha Batista, R.c., & Martinez, M. R. (2016))
Forecast the mitigated risks.
There are specific risk factors like Delivery or Operation risk, Technology risk, Financial Risk , Environmental Risk, Social and Economic. There are four basic ways to handle a risk.
- Avoid: The best thing you can do with a risk is avoid it. If you can prevent it from happening, it definitely won’t hurt your project. The easiest way to avoid this risk is to walk away from the cliff, but that may not be an option on this project.
- Mitigate: If you can’t avoid the risk, you can mitigate it. This means taking some sort of action that will cause it to do as little damage to your project as possible.
- Transfer: One effective way to deal with a risk is to pay someone else to accept it for you. The most common way to do this is to buy insurance.
- Accept: When you can’t avoid, mitigate, or transfer a risk, then you have to accept it. But even when you accept a risk, at least you’ve looked at the alternatives and you know what will happen if it occurs. If you can’t avoid the risk, and there’s nothing you can do to reduce its impact, then accepting it is your only choice.
Get the skilled and smart people onboard.
A project is as good or bad as the project members as they are the ones who carry the responsibility of a project on their shoulders. Apart from having skilled and enthusiastic team members, make sure to groom them with the relevant skill training and certifications to make them valuable assets and smart working professionals. As a project manager, it’s your duty to equip them with the required skills such as conflict-resolution and handling scope-creep to execute project plans successfully.
Better Efficiency in Delivering Services: Project management provides a “roadmap” that is easily followed and leads to project completion.
Improved Growth and Development Within your Team,Great performance leads to more opportunities to succeed.
Enhanced Customer Satisfaction
Increased Risk Assessment,Increase in Quality and Increase in Quantity
By implementing fundamental project management strategies and reaching the foals , you will narrow your focus, reach desired goals and achieve those goals within specific time and cost perimeters.
