Setting Project Goals: The S.M.A.R.T. principle

You have been asked to manage an art service project. You have your list of objects in front of you that need to be relocated, installed, crated, whatever the project requires and it would seem the way to approach managing the project is to just jump in and start.

I am here to tell you that it is not that simple. There are other concerned individuals that have a stake in the project and for any project that requires “managing” you will need staff to manage. This means you need input and a plan. Let’s discuss how to go about acquiring both.

A project is successful when the project goals have been met and the needs of the project stakeholders have been met. A stakeholder is anybody directly or indirectly impacted by the project.

As a first step, it is important to identify the stakeholders in your project. It is not always easy to identify the stakeholders of a project, particularly those impacted indirectly. Examples of stakeholders are:

• The project sponsor.
• The collection or object managers.
• The contractors.
• The facility managers.
• The soft labor providers.
• The project manager and project team.

Once you understand who the stakeholders are, the next step is to find out their needs. The best way to do this is by conducting stakeholder interviews. Take time during the interviews to draw out the true needs that create real benefits. Often stakeholders will talk about needs that are not relevant and do not deliver benefits. These can be recorded and set as a low priority.

The important needs of the stakeholders will often influence your scheduling plans. When there are multiple stakeholders involved in a project prioritizing their needs will require diplomacy and multiple planning meetings

The S.M.A.R.T. principle*

The next step, once you have conducted all the interviews, and have a comprehensive list of needs is to prioritize them. From the prioritized list, create a set of goals that can be easily measured. A technique for doing this is to review them against the SMART principle. This way it will be easy to know when a goal has been achieved.

The SMART principle is a commonly known project management tool used by many disparate industries and it has several variations. Below is the generally agreed upon criteria and the one that works best for our industry.

1. Set Specific Goals. Research shows that specific goals are the most motivating.
2. Set Measurable Goals. Simply saying that you want to get faster is not enough detail. You need to be able to chart and document progress toward your goal. One way to measure, your progress is to document your performance at set intervals.
3. Set Adjustable Goals. This means your goals are flexible enough to accommodate unexpected challenges without becoming obsolete. At the same time, you may find you are progressing quickly and need to raise your goal. Set Action-Oriented Goals Another important aspect of goal setting to keep them focused on personal action. Do not forget to consider not only what you want to achieve, but also how you plan to achieve it.
4. Set Realistic Goals. Start where you are, and increase your goals accordingly.
5. Set Time-based Goals. Without a timeline, there is a tendency to procrastinate. You may also need to set interim goals with shorter timelines to keep you on track.

Once you have established a clear set of goals and you understand the needs and expectations of your stakeholders, you are ready to begin working on the project plan and schedule.

*The first-known use of the acronym S.M.A.R.T. occurs in the November 1981 issue of Management Review by George T. Doran.  The principal advantage of SMART objectives is that they are easier to understand and to know when they have been done. SMART criteria are commonly associated with Peter Drucker‘s management by objectives concept. (Wikipedia)