In the previous post I defined and discussed Business Objectives and their importance. Project Objectives are very different from Business Objectives. I have seen Project Charters with the two types of objectives mixed into one objectives section and I find it very confusing. I recommend placing Project Objectives in its own section.

Project Objectives should satisfy the following criteria:

• Produce a product, service or result that survive and are maintained after the project is over. Some examples of this are (1) a new business “Standard Operating Procedure”; (2) new software installed that meets all of the acceptance criteria.
• Each Objective should have a definition of “done” that is agreed to by the Project Sponsor and the Project Team. This definition should be measurable and verifiable.

Project Objectives are important for the following reasons:

• They define the scope of the major deliverables of the project
• They will be used to define much of the activity scope of the project
• Meeting all of the Project Objectives is one of the criteria for project closing

The combination of having well defined Business and Project Objectives will get your project off to a great start and help keep it on track. Take care to get these right.

My book, “Project Management For The Real World”, is available in paperback and Kindle formats at

http://www.amazon.com/dp/b089krddvn

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