Facilities Check List
Practical, step-by-step guides for the busy FM
March 2001
The SMARTS Test for Goals and Objectives
In an ideal situation, goals and objectives evolve from the corporate strategic business plan and the strategic facilities planbased on it. When goals and objectives are set up this way, the outcome of a project can be measured. Its expected and actualresults can be compared.
All goals and objectives have six necessary characteristics. These characteristics are represented by the mnemonic deviceSMARTS.
(S)pecific: Goals and objectives must be specific. For example, a goal described as “improve productivity” is sovague that it is possible to both prove and disprove achievement of this goal, depending on the assumptions made. It is better toexpress it as “improving processing of insurance claims,” or even better, “reduce average claim processing time.” A good goalleaves no doubt as to the desired result, but permits options in how it will be achieved. A good objective is essentially aperformance specification that spells out exactly what constitutes achievement of a goal.
(M)easurable: Objectives are what make project achievement measurable, because they include quantitativedescriptors – for example, “reduce HVAC system operating costs by 5 percent by the end of 2002.”
Putting accurate and attainable measurable criteria into an objective can be difficult for some projects, especially thoseaimed at intangibles such as improved communication, better teamwork, or greater customer satisfaction. However, it can bedone, especially if you use results of a regularly administered survey questionnaire and tabulate results over time. Tracking suchresults and using them as the measurable aspect of an objective provides a means to measure performance. It also providesaccountability for the results. If performance cannot be measured, it is practically impossible to hold anyone accountable forproject results. In such cases, project evaluation becomes less disciplined, more subjective, and more vulnerable to abuse.
(A)greed To: The need for agreement by all parties to a facilities project is more critical than for most corebusiness projects because a wider spectrum of stakeholders is usually concerned. With so many different types of people andinterests involved, the facilities manager must take extra care to build consensus on each project’s goals and how the projectwill be judged. Without consensus on what the goals are, each group will judge the project on its own standards, and the focuson the project’s corporate contribution will be lost.
(R)ealistic: All parties to a project must believe that the goals and objectives set for a project are realistic andachievable. Setting unrealistic goals and objectives is the most common mistake in establishing project viability. Typically, time istoo short and money is inadequate.
If goals and objectives are unrealistic, people involved in a project may become discouraged or resentful, feeling that theyare being asked to do the impossible. Unrealistic goals drive people to take shortcuts, leave work incomplete, or renege onprior commitments – all of which can spell disaster for a facilities manager who must rely on cooperation from customers,management, review agencies, and suppliers to complete projects as planned.
(T)ime-Constrained: As the old maxim goes, “Work expands to fill the time allotted.” In management circles, it iswell known that most decisions get made just before the deadline set to make them, no matter how much time is provided toconsider what to do. Without deadlines, project goals would never be realized. Projects, by definition, must have specific endpoints, and these end points must be tied to project goals.
(S)ign-off: Agreements should be backed up by appropriate signatures.
This installment of FM Check List is adapted from BOMI Institute’s Facilities Planning and Project Management(www.bomi-edu.org/13051.html), a course in BOMI Institute’s Facilities Management Administrator (FMA)program.
