Get SMART about waterway objectives

Funding applications, strategic plans, project reports – they all ask about your objectives. What are you going to do and why?

Unfortunately, from my experience the people writing the objectives (and the people approving them) don’t really know what’s required. Sure, they know they should be SMART and maybe they can agree that M stands for measurable and A stands for attainable (or is that achievable?) but they seldom come out as useful.

In this article, I’ll explain what the acronym SMART stands for and how to apply the terms in creating clear and focused objectives.

How to set SMART objectives

A SMART objective is written in such a way that anyone reading the objective will likely interpret it the same way. Whilst there are several interpretations of the acronym SMART, the most common one is that objectives should be:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Achievable

• Relevant

• Time-bound.

S – Specific

Your objective must be specific i.e. it must be well defined, clear, and unambiguous.

To be specific about what you want to achieve, your objective should include answers to the following ‘w’ questions:

• Who needs to be involved to achieve the objective?

• What do you want your project to achieve?

• When do you want to achieve your objective (see T - Timebound)?

• Where will your objective be achieved?

• Why is the objective important (see R – Relevance)?

M – Measurable

Your objective must be measurable i.e. it must include direct measures to show when you’ve successfully met your objective.

Measures also make an objective more tangible by:

• enabling you to track project progress

• keeping you focused and motivated to achieve your objective.

Types of measures

Measures describe what project success will look like using quantitative data (numbers) such as:

• length e.g. km of fencing

• area e.g. hectares managed

• volume e.g. ML water saved

• units e.g. number of events.

Identifying measures

To identify the most appropriate measure/s ask yourself:

• How will I know when I’ve reached my objective?

• How many or how much will I need?

A – Achievable

Your objective must be achievable i.e. it must be possible to do it.

Determining achievability

To determine if your objective is achievable, ask yourself:

• Have others done it successfully before?

• Do I have the necessary resources and capabilities to achieve the objective? This may include:

• internal staff resources (both available time and the appropriate skills)

• equipment

• materials

• adequate funding

• specialist consulting services (if you need them).

Achievability will not necessarily be written in the objective, but the question as to whether you have the knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience to achieve the objective is important to consider.

R –Relevant

Your objective must be relevant i.e. it must form part of the bigger picture for your region or organisation.

Determining relevance

Answering yes to both of the following questions is a good indication that your objective is relevant:

• Does the project objective align with the broader program goal/s? In answering this question, consider:

• the regional goals of your region or organisation

• Is now the right time to undertake the project? In answering this question, consider:

• the current socio-economic environment

• project dependencies e.g. other projects that will produce outputs required by your project, other projects that require outputs from your project.

T –Timebound

Your objective must be timebound i.e. it must have a target date for completion.

If your objective is timebound, you have a deadline to focus on and something to work toward. It also gives you a sense of urgency and motivation to achieve it.

Determining time constraints

To make your objective timebound, ask yourself:

• Does my objective have a deadline?

• When do I want to achieve my objective?

SMART checklist

Now that we know what SMART stands for, how do we use it to create SMART objectives?

I’m glad you asked, Here’s a simple checklist I’ve created to follow:

Using the SMART checklist

Here’s a typical objective (trust me it’s real):

“To restore remnant native vegetation in Sandy Creek and improve habitat quality for woodland birds.”

Now let’s run it through the SMART checklist.

There’s a number of elements missing from the objective to make it SMART. In particular there are no measurable targets. I can’t tell you how annoying it is to read objectives with targets that just say “restore” or “improve”. Alright, I just did.

By applying the checklist, we could redraft the objective to be SMART as follows:

“By 2025, the CMA and landholders will restore 500ha of remnant native vegetation in Sandy Creek from poor to good condition to improve habitat quality for woodland birds.”

Simple changes but now we’ve created a clear, attainable and meaningful objective for our project. SMART.