Objectives and alignment

An objective carries a code, description, schedule, budget, delivery method and status. The owner can compare estimated, actual and logged hours alongside counts of work packages, tasks, blockers, risks and key results. The progress text belongs to the objective, so a review can start from the outcome the team is pursuing and move into its supporting work. An organization link keeps related objectives together.

At the review, begin with the objective record and read the linked result and delivery work in sequence. The schedule and progress text give the conversation a shared starting point. A status change should reflect the owner’s current decision, especially when a blocker or risk may affect the end date.

• Set direction. The Delivery Lead names the objective, its owner and its schedule.
• Connect delivery. Work packages, tasks and key results give the objective its review context.
• Update status. The lead checks blockers, risks and target dates before changing the objective state.

Agree who owns each objective, how the team uses planned, active, at-risk and completed, and when to change a target date. Decide how an organization is selected for internal objectives. Set a cadence for reading the hours, blocker and risk counts with the key result owner. Rehearse an active objective with a blocked task and a pending key result. Ask the lead whether the end date is still credible and who should change the status if it is at risk.

A delivery lead creates an objective for an organization and gives it a start and end date. The project manager then adds a work package and tasks. At the weekly review, the objective remains active while a blocker is triaged; the lead marks it at risk when the blocker threatens the end date. The key result owner has a dated checkpoint to discuss rather than a vague statement that work is underway. The lead checks that the at-risk status remains visible in Active Objectives and that the Project Manager owns the next action on the blocker. The decision stays on the objective.

• Active Objectives — Objectives with current delivery status, owner, dates and progress text.
• Objective Schedule — Planned and active work placed against start and end dates.

Follow the process and inspect the data model.