How to Write an Objective Statement


There are a lot of different reasons you might have to write an objective statement. The most common reason is that you need to run a project of some sort. And you need to provide clarification of the intent behind the project. What are you going to provide at the end? What are going to accomplish?

In this article I'm going to show you how to write an objective statement. Although I'm going to draw from project management principles, you can use this technique to write objective statements regardless of your reason.

One of the keystones for project management was called the "triple constraint". It basically said that project managers needed to balance three constraints:

    Quality
    Time
    Cost

when managing a project. Unfortunately, this was a somewhat limited view and was quickly changed to other balancing formula. The one constant was scope. So in fact the "triple constraint" was actually the "quadruple constraint":

    Quality
    Time
    Cost
    Scope

When writing an objective these are the four elements you should consider including.

For example, a fairly typical main objective -- also called a purpose statement -- might look like this:

Purpose: To write a traffic generating quality article on writing objective statements within one hour at a cost of $50.

The basic structure is:

Purpose: scope and quality by (date) within (time) at a cost of (cost).

While individual elements can be left off if they aren't relevant, the basic structure should be used. In addition, you should have a minimum of at least two to three of the elements. Otherwise, you probably have a detailed objective rather than the primary or purpose objective.

When writing the detailed objective statements, typically you are explaining what was meant by the four elements in the purpose statement. So for example you may write a set of objective statements that explain the meaning of traffic generating quality:

    Article will be within 300 to 600 words.
    Article will include SEO keywords
    Article title will include SEO keywords
    Article will answer the question raised in the keywords & title

And so forth.

Again the four criteria (time, cost, quality, scope) will help to define the objectives. However, unlike a purpose or main objective statement, the detailed objectives do not need to include more than one element.

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Glen Ford is an accomplished consultant, trainer and writer. He has far too many years experience as a trainer and facilitator to willingly admit.