How to write a very specific objective for a project?

Question

I am working on a case study which is like below :

Economic inequality is a huge issue. A recent study found that the world's 80 wealthiest individuals own as much as the entire world's poorest 3.5 billion people. The richest 1 percent of the world's population control half of the world's total wealth.15 Many individuals, corporations, charities, and government agencies have projects and programs in place to attempt to tackle this and other important global issues such as sustainability, but there are many opportunities to do more.

A trinidad group of college students has decided to work together to do their part in making the world a better place. The students are from many different countries, and several of them met at global conferences, through study abroad experiences, or on various Internet groups. Strategic goals of this group include developing skills for both college students and for needy populations, sharing information on existing products and services that promote economic growth and sustainability, and promoting entrepreneurship. Leaders of this group were reviewing some ideas for projects (all with a significant IT component) that they could do to support their strategic goals:

XYZ: Many people are familiar with the television show called Shark Tank where entrepreneurs (sometimes called “treps”) present their business ideas to a group of investors or sharks. Several colleges, high schools, and even elementary schools throughout the world hold unique versions of a shark tank like event. You believe that creating a nonprofit organization with one central mobile-friendly website/application to assist groups in organizing these types of events would spark even more entrepreneurs throughout the world. You would plan to hold several shark tank like events during the term of the project and create a site and applications to help continue developing more XYZ. This site/application would include the following capabilities:

• Provide guidelines and templates for running a shark tank type of event.

• Accept donations from potential investors targeted toward specific schools or organizations wishing to host an event.

• Accept ideas for needed new products or services.

• Provide the ability for organizations to create their own custom site to solicit local participants and sharks, accept applications, and promote the winners as well as losers.

• Research ideas for a mechanism where a certain percentage of all donations and profits earned by contestants are donated back to the XYZ organization.

• Provide an online version of the events by showing videos of contestants and live reactions of the sharks while also getting live inputs and donations from viewers.

I have created a document called as Project Charter in which I have written Project Objective like below :

Project Objectives:

Creating an application that will allow entrepreneurs to share their ideas with group of investors or with other entrepreneurs or sharks in shark tank type of event. This project will help in developing more projects like this in future.

My Lead(who reviewed my Project Charter) told me that this objective is not very specific as per SMART but I dont understand how and why?

Can someone please tell me how my project objective should look like if we follow SMART ?

Answer 1

SMART objectives

SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound. Setting goals according to this methodology is said to help one set goals that inspire people to strive for achievement, directing action to what really matters, not wasting time and energy.

• S - Specific: objectives must be formulated specifically and precisely. Some of the questions you might want tp answer here: What do I want to achieve? Reasons of benefit? Who is involved? Identify Location; Identify needs and obstacles.
• M - Measurable: objectives must be defined so that they can be measured and analyzed in terms of values or volumes. If the goal is not measurable, it is not possible to know if one is making progress;
• A - Attainable: the possibility of achieving the objectives must be present; these must be achievable;
• R - Realistic: Objectives are not intended to achieve ends greater than the means allow;
• T - Time-bound: Objectives should be defined in terms of duration.

Let's say you wanted to lose weight and get back in shape (not round shape), you could set your SMART goal as follows:

Lose 5 kg a month for the next 6 months by walking and balancing my diet through foods with less sugar and less fat.

You might want to look as well at SMARTER goals, where the new letters add the words Evalutate and Reevaluate.

How can I make my objective SMART?

This is the current objective

Creating an application that will allow entrepreneurs to share their ideas with group of investors or with other entrepreneurs or sharks in shark tank type of event. This project will help in developing more projects like this in future.

This goal isn't SMART because it isn't defined in terms of duration (T) and can be more specific (S) and measurable (M). This is the example of one:

Create an application, during the next 6 months, with capabilities X, to connect entrepreneurs, investors and sharks.

Is this achievable (A) and realistic (R)? If not or you're in doubt, how can it be A and R? Here you might want to increase the time, hire people, ...