What Are Project Objectives? What Every PM Needs to Know

A simple breakdown of project objectives for new project managers

Are you new to project management and wondering what project objectives are?

This is an important topic for every project manager to understand. If you’re not clear on what project objectives are and how to approach them, this simple breakdown will teach you what you need to know.

Project Objectives Definition

Project objectives are specific and measurable. They must meet the time, budget, and quality requirements of the project.

Your project objective is your scope statement. It’s specific and lays things out in a measurable way.

Don’t confuse a project objective with business objectives. A project objective is specific to the project that you’re going to be delivering, while a business objective is more high-level and describes the overall vision of the organization. Your project objective probably fits into a business objective, so it’s important that your project objective is specific and clear.

Purpose of a Project Objective

The purpose of a project objective is to lay out what you and your team are delivering on.

Your project objective helps you build your project plan, lay expectations, and provide guidance to your Steering Committee and those outside the project team.

It helps you keep the project in check so that you don’t have scope creep (which happens when people keep adding expectations to your project). So, your project objective (or scope statement) is there to lay out the boundaries and guidelines of your project.

Project Objective Example

If you’re new to project management and want to understand project objectives even better, I’ve created a video where I not only explain what project objectives are, but also give an example that will help you understand project objectives so you can apply this to your project.

Want to hear the example? Just follow me over to YouTube and I’ll tell you about it there!