The deadline is very close and you just realized that even a miracle wouldn’t help, no chance to be in time. Worse: you got the customer at the other end of the phone and you don’t know whether the delay can be measured in couple of weeks or couple of months?

How could it happen? It was an easy task, you got skilled staff and enough time. This is at least what you thought…

Let’s look six months back: Did the team understand what the actual objective was and by when to deliver it? Do you remember which goals you gave to your team? Was the goal realistic given the resources you got?

You probably didn’t define “SMART goals”. It isn’t about magic or miracles, SMART is a tool that would have helped you in leading a successful project!

SMART is an acronym that stands for

• Specific: the objective is well defined and detailed enough to avoid any misunderstanding / wrong interpretation for each team component.
• Measurable: the goal is specified in a way that (at any time) allow you track the progress at especially let you understand how far you are from 100% goal completion.
• Achievable: can you achieve the goal with the resources you got, in the committed timeframe? Do you have the right skills in the team? In other words: ensure that your team can be completed in the planned timeframe.
• Relevant: ensure that the goal is aligned with the general company’s guidelines, strategy and interest.

• Time based: the goal must have a firm and achievable deadline; each task must be paired with a completion date, to be clearly discussed with the team members.

Bottom line: define SMART goals if you want to avoid horror scenarios!!!