7 Types Of Project Objectives (Plus Examples)

If you’re leading a large team during a project, it’s important to plan effectively so the project successfully fulfills its goals. Setting objectives can help keep your team on track to finish by its deadline. Understanding project objectives can help you create your own, which may improve your overall success in the task. In this article, we explain what project objectives are, discuss seven different objectives and provide three project objective examples.

What are project objectives?

Project objectives describe the desired outcome of a project, which is often a tangible object. It’s beneficial to create objectives for your project because creating a specific goal for you and your team helps everyone know what they’re supposed to be working toward. This can improve your team’s chances of success.

When you’re writing an objective, use the SMART method. SMART is an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based. The objectives are most useful when they’re written before a project begins.

7 types of project objectives

Here are seven types of project objectives:

1. Performance objectives

You may establish a performance objective when you want to improve your product, service or process. You can also use this objective type to detail how the project is going to proceed, such as the project deadline or the resources needed to complete the task. Performance objectives can also describe the desired outcome of a product or service, such as how many potential customers can click on your website to browse. Overall, this objective can help you track the progress of your team. Here are some metrics it can measure:

• Project plan coherence

• Budget prediction accuracy

• Project timeline efficiency

• Individual team members’ task performance

2. Business objectives

Create a business objective when you want to align a company’s values with a project for potentially higher rates of success. This objective could include details of launching a new product or service, a grand opening or closing of a business’ location or the overall mission of an organization. When you’re writing, ensure you provide plenty of details about your plan, where the project is beginning and where you would like to see the organization when it’s completed.

3. Financial objectives

A financial objective is when you want to have a direct impact on an organization’s finances, and you measure it in monetary values. This objective can detail the organization’s budget of how much you’re expecting to spend on the project and how much you’re estimating to make back from the project when it’s finished. You can also use this objective to compare the overall company budget with the individual budget of the project. Other details you can outline are:

• How much you want to save

• How much you want to pay each employee

• How much you want to increase or decrease the supply cost of the company

4. Effectiveness objectives

Use an effectiveness objective when you want to improve the processes of a company and the way employees complete tasks. Setting goals to monitor how your team is progressing in the project and outline how you want to see team members complete their tasks can be beneficial when writing the objective. This way, everyone understands their roles and what the goals are for the team. As you monitor these goals, it can help you identify where you can improve productivity during the project process.

5. Regulatory objectives

A regulatory objective is when you want to understand the effects of your project outside of the organization. Depending on where you live, your city or the government can set regulations you’re required to adhere to when working on a project, such as sustainability regulations. Detailing regulations in your objective helps keep everyone on track and stay within the limits of what the team members can do.

6. Technical objectives

Create a technical objective when you want to implement certain technology into the project. The technical objective can detail your plans to upgrade your current technology systems, install new equipment within the organization or update the way you use existing technology within the project. Here are some examples of technology you can include in your objective:

• Network capabilities

• Mobile devices

• Telephones

• Hardware

• Software

7. Quality objectives

Introduce a quality objective when you want to measure the quality control of your products during a project. This objective can also reflect improvements during the assembly of the product to reduce the number of defects or increase the customers’ satisfaction with the product. If you’ve created a quality plan, it’s most likely your quality objectives are within those details, so you can take them directly from there when outlining your objective. A quality plan is a document describing your product standards, quality practices and the specific resources and processes needed for an individual project.

Examples of project objectives

Here are a few examples of effective project objectives you can use as a guide while you create your own:

Example of a business objective

By May 2022, our senior web development team is going to develop a remodeled website, including a new logo, using their additional six hours per week. Every Friday, they’re going to give us an update report on what they’ve accomplished and what they still have left to complete. We’re allotting them a budget of $4,000 for the completion of the project.

Example of a performance objective

By the end of the holiday season of 2022, our sales team plans to increase profits by 45% by offering consumers 2% more coupons in their mailboxes and inboxes. At the end of each quarter, we’re going to have sales meetings to track the number of sales made using the coupons.

Example of a regulatory objective

Our objective is to create one-time-use products that are more sustainable for the environment in accordance with the state’s recently passed sustainability legislation. By January 2023, we’re going to have single-use straws, containers, and utensils that are more environmentally friendly. We plan to use bamboo for these products because it’s manufactured mechanically instead of chemically. We’re going to conduct bi-weekly production inspections to ensure the project is progressing on time.