Project Planning using SMART Goals

Plan your work. Work your plan. Sound familiar?  If not planned and executed properly, a project is likely to miss its completion date, be over budget or not meet the goals set out to achieve.

I once read a quote. If it is on paper, it’s a plan. If not, it’s a dream. It’s kind of like Woody Allen’s Success Secret, 80% of success is showing up.  Well, you could say 80% of your project’s success is getting it on paper.

SMART Goals is a ‘One Page’ version of a project management system.  It is simple to use yet effective for small projects, especially when you rely upon yourself to manage it and use few external resources to complete it.

SMART closely follows the PMI Project Management Model. Project Management International (PMI) defines project management as five processes:

• Project Initiation
• Planning and Design
• Execution
• Monitor and Control
• Close

When using the complete PMI model, we are often managing multi-year or multi-million dollar projects requiring large internal or external staff. Tools like Microsoft Project, Method 1 2 3, just to name a couple, are designed to support the complete PMI model.

SMART dates back to Doran’s 1981 publication.  SMART is the acronym for:

• S              Specific
• M            Measurable
• A             Achievable
• R             Relevant
• T              Time-bound

Compare the PMI model with SMART. Notice the similarities?

So, let’s delve into SMART further.

Make your Project Specific.

The project is specific when you can clearly describe what, why and how it needs to be accomplished.

What is to be accomplished?

Make it to the point.  It may be personal such as lose 10 pounds in a month, or business related such as develop an inbound marketing program to increase sales or implement an ecommerce system to support demand.

Why is this project important?

If it is for business, the project typically shows a return on investment (ROI) or meets a need to continue operations. An example may be to develop an inbound marketing program to increase sales by 25% or achieve an ROI of 200%; or to implement an improved ecommerce solution to meet growing consumer demand.

If for personal reasons, they are more related to quality of life. They may be one of three typical reasons. You may be interested in working fewer hours or have your own work schedule. Or, you may be focusing on making more money to treat yourself or by that retirement house. You may want to help others and this is the way to make it happen.

You may wish to start a travel business because you enjoy working helping people travel to new places.  You may want to start an exercise plan to get back in shape.  Perhaps you want to set up an outsourcing business to help people in your area earn a living.

How do you plan to accomplish your goal?

Perhaps you wish to start an exercise program so you can get into shape by walking 20 minutes every day.

You want to sales by 25% or achieve an ROI of 200% buy implementing an inbound marketing program. Or, meet growing consumer demand by moving your ecommerce server from an in-house operation to HostGator and implementing the latest version of Magento.

Let’s say the goal is to write a blog post about the SMART Goals methodology that is at least 1200 words in length and completed over the course of four days.

Is the goal specific?  Yes.

Make Your Project Measureable.

In the project management business, we say that if we cannot measure it, we cannot manage it. I happen to have a little project management flowing in my blood. In general terms, if the goal is accomplished, then the project is a success.

A project has a beginning, middle and an end. The beginning is taking action. The end is the goal. However, in the middle, we may have a few milestones, points in the project which identify ‘mini goals’. Document these milestones.

Within the process of writing a blog post, we have mini goals of Research, Outline, Write, Proofread, and Post. When you break down the task into multiple steps, you create a more accurate time estimate and goal.  Also, you have a better sense of reaching your goal when you know individual steps are completed.

At this point of the article, I have completed my Research and have and Outline.  My article consists of a prologue, six topics and an epilogue.  Each part consisting of about 200-300 words, by far exceeding my expectations.

As you can see my criteria is solid.  I know what I’ve done and know what I have to complete. I know I am on track because I am measuring my progress. And this is coming from a creative guy who finds writing an extremely painful process.

Is the goal measurable?  Yes.

Make Your Project Achievable

What are the resources needed to complete the project?  Are they at your disposal now?  If not, you cannot expect the goal to be achieved on the time.  Set out to start a project with the intent of it being achievable.

Let’s say you are going to train to run the marathon.  Depending upon what kind of shape you are in, you may have to start quite low and spend several months to develop the stamina necessary to run the distance. So if the research says you need about 18 months of training, it will be quite unreasonable to expect to run the marathon it in a month.

Let’s go back to the article example.  We’ve done the research and we have all the information necessary to write the article.

Is the goal achievable? Yes

Make Your Project Relevant

How does this project support your greater goals?  Is it a stretch? If so, why are you doing it then?  Are there other things you ought to be doing that supports your greater goals instead?

These questions should help you better focus on the goals you choose.

Back to our example.  If the article was an article about weight lose, it probably is not relevant since this website focuses upon inbound marketing. Our goal is to write a blog article about SMART Goals which will be used later to help you manage your inbound marketing implementation goal.

Is the goal relevant? Yes

Make Your Project Time-bound

Projects need to be completed.  Meaning, they have a reasonable completion date.  Even cyclical projects that seem to go on forever have completion dates. Take for example; running a business is broken into annual, quarterly, monthly and daily goals.

What happens when you don’t set a completion date?  No incentive to start the project. No incentive to complete the project.   If you don’t start the project, you can’t complete it. A New Year’s resolution to lose weight is not time-bound. However the goal to lose 20 pounds in 5 months at the rate of four pounds per month is time bound.

Back to the article example, we have committed to a completion date of 4 days.

Is the goal time-bound? Yes

Set Mini-Goals.

Even though SMART doesn’t directly address this point, you can see in the above examples that it is extremely effective. It helps you show progress.  I personally like to read books that have shorter length chapters. Completing a chapter is a big reward for me even though the total length of the book may be longer than normal.

In the weight lose example, you know after one month you are on schedule when you see 4 pounds less when you step on the scale.

I know that one-half of my article project is complete when I have completed my research and written the outline.

In Summary

There you have it. A project set to the SMART Goal method.  When applying the SMART Goal method, you are well on your way to executing and fulfilling your project goal.

Do you have a plan now?  Now is the time to start.

Resources

Project Management International http://www.pmi.org

References

Doran, G. T. (1981). There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management’s goals and objectives. Management Review, Volume 70, Issue 11(AMA FORUM), pp. 35-36.