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Incorporating SMART Goals into Setting Project Milestones

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Incorporating SMART goals to reach project milestones is key to your teams productivity and motivation.

What does SMART goals stand for; Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely.

Project managers know the stress and importance of maintaining a project’s timeline. When the team encounters an unexpected delay they must coordinate their efforts into getting the project back on track. However, with the delicate timeline of a project this can become challenging to achieve. Delays usually lead to the project deadline being pushed back or the cancellation of the project as a whole. Meaningful project milestones must be put in place and the team’s incorporation of SMART goals should be used ensure efficiency. 

Project milestones are key elements to the project’s completion. They allow the team to visualize the progression of the project on a timeline. Milestones are used to divide the project into sections to avoid the overwhelming feeling of the project as an entirety. SMART goals can be used in synchrony with project milestones on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. Setting these goals as a team holds everyone accountable and to the same standard. These defined and attainable goals with specific criteria can work to improve the motivation of your team. 

Timeline and Goal Reinforcement

Using project milestones will ensure team motivation. The identification of each task completion as a milestone can take away from the momentum of the project. This is when SMART goals can become extremely valuable to project managers. Setting and reaching a weekly SMART goal gets your team one step closer to the completion of a project milestone while also providing a sense of progress. This gives your team the motivation to work towards the larger goal and allows them to see the importance of the milestone.

Visual Representation 

There is great importance to visibly scheduling project milestones on your team’s project calendar. These milestones must be presented with importance as their completion is essential to the project’s deadline. The team can set their weekly SMART goals in accordance to the project milestone deadlines. Therefore, using a project tracking software has great advantages for your team’s motivation and productivity. 

Responsibility

Project milestones are set with the understanding that they will be met on time. In the event of the team falling short meeting a milestone, it is crucial the project manager addresses it. This may include re-structuring and examining resources to improve functionality of the team. Reinforcement of a project milestone emphasizes the importance of meeting these goals as individuals on a team.

Liability to Error

This is an important concept to consider when setting milestones as a project manager. The project milestones need to be challenging enough to pose a risk of failure. This creates learning experiences for the team when re-configuring focus points and gives opportunity for SMART goal setting to get back on track. The failure may provide room for improvement within the final project. 

Team Project Management Software | Solving PMO Isolation

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We’ve seen organizations where the project manager seems to be continuously pitted against the project teams. We’ve even been part of them and led them. Project Managers and PMO’s on these teams are often isolated units within the IT organization with a distinct “over thereness” to them. Project managers who trend towards isolation and Ivory Tower type interaction with teams may do so because there is no other choice. Isolated, fraction-ed project management, and the lack of IT work management systems are significant contributors to work isolation in general. Properly using team project management software can help.

The Project Manager, faced with these issues may face a number of insurmountable challenges. These include:                                                                                                             

  • overwork;
  • lack of information;
  • too little information too late;
  • seemingly uncooperative teams.

The remedy is obvious; join the team and solve the problem!

As we look at these four symptoms of bad project-management we see an obvious remedy; use a tool that everyone can contribute to.

By using a common tool each person on the team becomes responsible for the work assigned. No cat-herding required, (okay, maybe a little :)). As we examine the effect that an integrated IT work management system has on each of the four symptoms above we note that:                                                                                      

  • Overwork is remedied by putting the work in front of the individual who performs it. Expecting them to update and complete tasks and communicate as required.
  • A lack of information is immediately addressed via a team tool where the individual assigned takes complete responsibility for the task or work.
  • Good policies and procedures for data entry, (i.e. everything in by the end of the day), combined with the team project management software remedies the issues around ” too little information too late”.
  • And finally, the issue of uncooperative teams resolves itself. As we realize, (remember that), most teams are not really uncooperative. IT staff won’t key anything in that doesn’t add value – they are hard-wired this way and that is why we love them. If it adds value, (paycheck, review, team success, overall morale, the project manager will stop bugging me), then they are in.
If you are experiencing these four symptoms, or your own unique symptoms caused by the lack of a TEAM project management system then implementation of an integrated IT work management system may be just what the doctor prescribes.
In summary; a project manager who has a tool where all of his team members can collaborate and coordinate ALL IT WORK, (tickets, tasks, planned work, ad hoc work, development, releases, etc…), is vital to the success not only of the project manager but of the organizations projects and of the team.

3 Tips for Ensuring Your Project Team is Fully Engaged

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Wouldn’t it be great to have everyone’s attention all the time keeping the project team engaged?  Every meeting you see individuals on the edge of their seats, hanging on your every word.  What you say drives what they do.  How well they do it helps define your success. Its like a well-oiled machine.  The whole is much bigger than the sum of the parts…never the other way around. Business like it was meant to be.

This, of course is hard to achieve. Why?   Because not all employees and team members buy into the all for one, one for all concept. Not all feel the warmth of working toward a common goal. Some are more focused on personal gain or feel like they know better and can do it better (and no one says that isn’t true, we just need to acknowledge that as a team, not rogue individuals).

So how do we ensure that everyone is on the same page?  How do we make sure that our team members are fully engaged and working toward the common goals on the project?  [Read more…] about 3 Tips for Ensuring Your Project Team is Fully Engaged