DR. Simon in in lecture mentioned us about the project objectives. He stated that the objectives should be achievable, understandable, and affordable.
What do you think the project objectives should be in any case.
According to me the main and basic project objective should be a successful outcome, that is the change or effect it is going to cause. In simple terms they are goals or can say buisness objective that you want to accomplish. Though there is slight difference between goal and objective, goal is a higher level statement and objective being lower level statement. Formulated Project Objective should have a description of projects outcome and effects, participatory process, it has to be accepted by stakeholders.
Out of the three listed objectives, achievable is the critical objective. This objective has to be based on a plethora of other sub-factors. The amount of time it will take, the number of employees a company has, do we have enough money in the budget to do so. The trivial solution is if we have everything then yes this project is achievable. In essence, the reality is not always what you want. You have to work with what you got. If you have to build the NASA space station and you only have 50 workers and maybe 2 suppliers the possibility of achieving the end product will be unsuccessful. If the timeline is 2 years when really it takes 8-10 years to build this station due to needing many suppliers and or different manufacturing processes to be done. The list goes on. The scope of the project is what will help a company to have an achievable end result as well.
I think it might be easy to focus on any of these characteristics and say that any which one is the most important, but the way I see it, being achievable actually hinges on the other two mentioned characteristics in some way, shape or form. If an objective cannot be easily understood by others, then it simply cannot be achieved due to lack of knowledge transfer about the goal. You cannot achieve your goal without understanding clearly where you want to go and why. Likewise, if an objective is not affordable, then it is not (realistically) achievable. This may depend on how you frame achievable, but I see it as if you cannot achieve it within budget, then you have not achieved it.
I think the main objective of any project I worked on is to have a solution for the customer or a good offer to the market. Of course, the project has to be achievable and deliver a final product on expected time is important. You might have the greatest idea and can make it happen, but if there is no need for final outcome in the market you can't sell it. So I think an understanding of the market and/or customer need is the first step for a successful project. Also, you have to take into consideration the affordability of the final outcome. Especially if you are in a competitive market, you have to think about what going to differentiate your product from other.
Just like krp67 mentioned, I believe the most important part of a project is for it to be achievable. If the end goal of a project is not achievable, then working on the project itself is a waste of time. Other aspects of a project are not even relevant if the project is not achievable to begin with. For example, if a project is not achievable it is unlikely to be understandable. Along with that note, the affordability of a project, or its end result(s), would not be worth thinking about if a successful result is not feasible to begin with.
I think all these three features of a project are all intertwined. Although the achievable seems to stand as the most important one, in reality, it will be greatly undermined if the other two characteristics are not fully met. For instance, let say, you have a project be achieved within a timeframe, but the people working on it don't have a clear understanding of their individual task, the project won't be achieved, at least not in the expected timeframe. If the financial need isn't properly met, the likelihood of the project being achieved will be reduced or it will simply be delayed. I highly value examing in great consideration in one of these characters for an effectiveness in project result.
I think the objective of a successful outcome is dependent on the objectives discussed in the lecture. If a project is not achievable, understood, and affordable how will it be able to succeed?
With those three objectives, if the project only meets two of them it will be hard to succeed. For example, if the project is achievable and understood, but not affordable, a project team will not be able to complete the project, or at least not complete it well, which would make it very difficult for it to be an effective product.
I am in agreement with the other posts above that projects need to meet all three objectives in order to be considered successful. A project can never be successful if it is not achievable, a project that is well understood will have minimal scope creep, and a project that is not affordable will not be completed in sufficient time or level of quality. This idea brings to mind the "Quality Triangle". This is a project management idea where Time, Cost, and Scope are all points on a triangle. Whenever one of the items change, the other two are affected. This leads to the saying of "Pick any 2: Good, Cheap, or Fast. You can't have all 3." For example, if a project need to be completed quickly and at a high quality, the you need to be prepared to pay more for it. If a project needs to be completed quickly and cost is fixed, then quality will suffer.
Here is a link to a video which explains this well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZGs0X920gU
I agree with Dr. Simon's perspective about how the project objectives should be achievable, understandable, and affordable. An achievable project incorporates time management and laying down all of the main objectives, sub-objectives, and minor sub-tasks all into a well-organized structure. This portion of the 3 objectives should also incorporate prioritization in the case where one task has a more substantial business impact than another and also in the case where task X cannot be done without having task Y done prior to that task X. Also an achievable project is only successful with the well-equipped personnel so the HR department has a big play in this as well.
An Understandable project is dictated by how well the problem is identified by the project owner or engineers. A well thought out problem will usually always have an understable solution which then lays out the foundation of how achievable the project is. Utilizing previous studies that are related to the project will also give a better understanding of how to approach each objective with a proper solution.
I believe affordability is highly dependent on efficiency of the team itself. If a team has a low work-ethic which imbues a low efficiency project, then the project will require more resources and most importantly, more time. The more time a project is running for, the more resources it will use, thus increasing the cost of the project. It is best to complete each and every task with the best effort and a well-thought out plan to incorporate efficiency into the objective to complete the project on time. Just as the saying goes, time is money!
I completely agree to everyone’s post here; a project objective must be achievable. For a project to be success, it should be measurable and contain a clear vision for all the team members. In order for the project to be achievable, it should be measurable in a specified time-frame. So given a timespan, we have to see that everyone is working towards the goal. Lack of team planning and insufficient members in one area of the project leads to outbound of time.
Mention if any objectives are there for the project!!
In my opinion the most critical project objective should be whether the project is achievable and understandable, these both will go hand in hand. The project is achievable if it's objective is understood well. The initiation phase would decide if the project is achievable after having seen the customer needs and having discussed with the concerned departments on how these needs would be fulfilled and hence goal of the project will be achieved. Affordability will be in the picture only after it has been seen that the project is achievable after it has been understood.
DR. Simon in in lecture mentioned us about the project objectives. He stated that the objectives should be achievable, understandable, and affordable.
What do you think the project objectives should be in any case.According to me the main and basic project objective should be a successful outcome, that is the change or effect it is going to cause. In simple terms they are goals or can say buisness objective that you want to accomplish. Though there is slight difference between goal and objective, goal is a higher level statement and objective being lower level statement. Formulated Project Objective should have a description of projects outcome and effects, participatory process, it has to be accepted by stakeholders.
I think those three objectives are spot on. First and foremost, the project objectives need to be achievable. If the objectives will require technology, manufacturing capabilities, resources, etc. that the company doesn't have in the first place, the project is doomed for failure from the start. Next, if the objectives are not understood by everyone involved, then everyone may not be working towards the same end goal, which may result in inefficiencies, missed deadlines, and other issues. Also, having clear objectives may even motivate employees to work hard on the project if it is something they are passionate about. Finally, you could design and release an amazing product, but if it is extremely expensive and no one wants to buy it, then you won't make any money off of it. Therefore, the final component of affordability is something that absolutely needs to be kept in mind.
For a project to be successful, just like it has been elaborated above, the 3 project objectives are needed in all stages of the hierarchy because all tasks under each phases are in sync to each other, they work hand in hand.
But sad to say that most organizations do not apply these 3 project objective recipe at the initial stage. Most times the middle level managers who creates this project at the initial phase tend to only look at how it will benefit them, what the numbers ($$$) are when they sell. So they end up starting up a project without looking at the tasks involved; if it is going to be achievable by the lower level managers and manufacturing/production department.
As long as they understand how they want this project to look like without taking the practical steps to determine the pros and the cons, they feel every shareholders involved should understand this project and figure out a way to make it work and in the long run they produce a medical device that can not be affordable or has a lot of regulatory issues and end up costing more than they bargained for. In all of this, it is the lower level managers that gets blamed for not executing the project properly without considering that from the onset they never had an objective.
I have worked for companies where they bring in the objectives at the last minute, when the product is been manufactured and they see lots of issues wrong with the product, the labor involved is more than what they thought. Then they end up making less quality products because anyway they have a target to produce regardless of the problems and thereby giving the marketers and sales personnel hard time to market and sell these product.
I am in agreement with the other posts above that projects need to meet all three objectives in order to be considered successful. A project can never be successful if it is not achievable, a project that is well understood will have minimal scope creep, and a project that is not affordable will not be completed in sufficient time or level of quality. This idea brings to mind the "Quality Triangle". This is a project management idea where Time, Cost, and Scope are all points on a triangle. Whenever one of the items change, the other two are affected. This leads to the saying of "Pick any 2: Good, Cheap, or Fast. You can't have all 3." For example, if a project need to be completed quickly and at a high quality, the you need to be prepared to pay more for it. If a project needs to be completed quickly and cost is fixed, then quality will suffer.
Here is a link to a video which explains this well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZGs0X920gU
Just as almost everyone in the discussion has agreed that all 3 objectives need to be met, I agree on the same. I also think that meeting the 'Need statement' is of utmost importance in projects especially related to the medical devices/healthcare innovation industry. And these need statements also need to be created keeping in mind the end-user and user requirements. So, all in all, the need, affordability and understanding of usage along with the other objectives are all important for the success of any project.
I would also like to mention that I really liked the Quality triangle idea shared in the forum by @as934. It is definitely interesting and should be given thought to while discussing project objectives.
Project Objectives should also be S.M.A.R.T : Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Related. To have objectives to the project but the most important part is to get the Right Objectives. Its good to learn from previous projects experiences to build the right SMART objectives.
