5.3 e-Business Plan: Project Objectives

As noted in the business description lesson, most business plans don't include project objectives. However, there are exceptions. In a business case the target audience -- senior management -- will want to know specifically how the proposed project's mission and goals will be accomplished. Adding credibility to a small business plan and the need to demonstrate feasibility for a plan are two other good reasons to include project objectives. For whatever reason, if you need to write project objectives for your business plan, then this lesson will assist you.

The lesson outline is:
What is a Project Objective?
How to Write Project Objectives

What is a Project Objective?

Even more than how goals define a mission statement, objectives define a goal. In fact some people refer to an objective as a subgoal. Formally then, an objective is a statement, derived from a business goal, that describes a short-term, specific, verifiable condition that must exist to fulfill the affiliated goal.

As its name implies, project objectives are linked to a project. Goals don't just happen. To carry out the tasks inherent in a goal statement one or more projects are started. The outcomes or deliverables of a project are its objectives.

If a mission statement expresses what is to be done and goals state how the promise of the mission statement is to be fulfilled, then project objectives state when, where, who, and by how much.

How to Write Project Objectives

A popular rule for writing good objectives is that they be SMART objectives. The characteristics of a SMART objective are:

• Specific: The objective tells exactly what, where, and how the problem or need is to be addressed.
• Measurable: The objective tells exactly how much, how many, and how well the problem/need will be resolved.
• Action-oriented: The objective uses "activity indicators" to insure that something will be done. As with goal-setting, use action-oriented verbs such as deliver, implement, establish, and supply.
• Realistic: The objective is a result that can be achieved in the time allowed.
• Time-bound: The objective includes a specific date for it's achievement.

To illustrate the objective writing process, consider the Purma Top Gifts goal "Create a well-designed Web site that is fast, easy to navigate, responsive, and gives visitors the information they need." Some illustrative objectives for this goal are:

• A prototype Web site with 90% of all planned features and information will be available for testing 20 days before the launch date.
• The Purma Top Gifts site will be hosted by an external provider and be available to customers 99.5 percent of the time.
• Any page on the Purma Top Gifts site will download in 12 seconds or less using a 56kbps modem in America on 90 percent of all tests. All pages will download in 17 seconds or less in 100 percent of all tests.
• In a customer focus group, 80 percent of Purma Top Gifts customers will rate the site 45 or better on the Web site scorecard.
• Any information on the Purma Top Gifts site will be available within three mouse clicks from the home page.
• A standard navigation menu at the bottom of each page will list each second level Web page.
• A comments e-mail link will be included at the bottom of each page. A visitor who submits a comment via this link will receive a personal reply within one working day.

You now have all you need to write some project objectives, as required in assignment 5 in the Business Description lesson.