Question

Specific: What do I want to achieve? What is required of me, and what are my constraints?

Measurable: How much money is needed? How will I knowI know if I am succeeding?

Attainable: How can I do this? Is this consistent with my financial goals?

Realistic: Am I willing and able to do this?

Timely:  What is my target date? What short-term goals must be achieved along the way to achieve my longer term goals?

Answer 1

SMART is a performance management technique used and the philosphy is that the employees can be motivated and they will work towards achieving those goals when the goals are objective and measurable by both parties in similar manner.

The SMART is acronym for this philoshy and can be used as a guide for determining & setting the goals:

Specific: The first step is to identify and list the end result required / work to be done objectively such that anyone reading the same should interpret it that same way. It should also list out observable conditions which will signify the competion or achievement of objective.

Measurable: The goal achievement and completion should be measurable (by some physical indicators) like how much resourced used, output or something and ideally there should be a scale of measurement to denote that percentage achievement in the end. Also for certain projects, there can be interim milestones also to assess and measure progress prior to completion also.

Attainable: This is important since the goal setting should be relative to resources available and capacity/capability and how the goal will fit into the overall scheme of the things for the organisation (or an individual long term goals).

Realistic:This is in a way an extension of above step where in the goal setting analysis should be done on benefit of performing or putting effort in achieving the goal and also look if it is the best use of available resources and capacity.

Timely: Any goal should have an identifiable time period for measurement and progress check and this period should be objectively put down. In many cases there can be series of short term goals which may lead to larger goals over longer period of time but either case there should be an observable date for progress check and also (at times) to set in the urgency required to get things done.

All the above steps taken together can help in preparing an objective goal setting and measurement platform.