Setting Corporate Goals and Objectives

Project management is quite complicated and can be daunting if you actually stop to think about it; and so it should be! However, if you take it in small steps, then you stand a much better chance of being able to deal with the whole problem and reaching a highly satisfactory outcome.

Initial Considerations

The very first thing that you need to do as part of your role as a project manager is to work out exactly what the objectives, constraints and goals are with this project. This will tell you everything you need to know about the project and help you decide how to go about tackling it.

Moreover, by engaging in this process, you will also find out what resources will be required. The objectives must be very clear so that everyone knows what the point of the project is, without clear objectives it can be very easy for people to lose sight along the way.

By detailing the goals and objectives of the project it will also help people to understand how you are going to be measuring success or failure. There will be different objectives for different areas of the project. There will be time objectives, budget objectives and technical objectives.

Constraints

It’s also worth thinking about constraints; these are things that you must abide by and not stray over. These could include technology, budget, culture or time. You should then use this information to come up with a plan to ensure that the overall project objectives can be reached within the constraints AND to the eventual customer’s satisfaction.

Stakeholders

After you have identified the objectives you then need to identify the stakeholders in the project. “Stakeholders” is just another way of referring to the people that have an interest in the project. Your client will be a very important stakeholder, and so you need to think about whether your objectives are in line with their goals. If not then there can be a conflict of interests which could turn nasty. Unless your client is also keen on the project then it’s unlikely to go anywhere as they will withdraw their support. However, there are also a number of other less obvious stakeholders that you may need to consider when devising your project plan. Some of the frequently forgotten stakeholder groups are summarised as follows:

• Local community;
• Families of employees;
• The government (both local and national);

SWOT

Many project managers will also use SWOT analysis as a tool to assess whether taking on a particular project is in their best interests. Using a SWOT will help you to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the project. There will always be some risks associated with the project; you need to think about these so that you can find ways to resolve them.

Objectives and Goals

The objectives and goals of your project should form the starting point of any project management task. It’s important that everyone knows exactly what the point of the project is; otherwise the true objective may not be attainable. There can be many perceived reasons for doing projects, which is why you need to clearly communicate your objectives with your employees.

Project management can seem very scary when you first start thinking about it, however it’s the getting started, and getting off on the right foot, that’s the most difficult part of it! Once you have started planning then you should be on the road to success! Once the project starts you will find that the momentum carries you along without as much effort.

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