About goals and objectives, part one
When we start work on the site, we first work on the concept. We find out the goals for which the site is being created, and set the tasks that the site should solve. Then we determine the ways in which these tasks will be solved. That's right: we find out the goals, we set the tasks, we determine the methods, we allocate the resources.
By the way, most customers do not know how to formulate the goals of creating a site. The questions “why do you want to make a site” are answered by something like “well, this one is outdated” or “inconvenient to administer”. Although the answer to the question “ why ” should even begin in a different way. For example, “ in order to sell our goods” or “ in order to attract investors”. To educate the customer and help him correctly formulate goals is part of our work.
Finding out goals and setting goals is one of the key points of website development. But not everyone agrees with this. Some people are surprised, they say, why are we going to talk about goals here, we need a website with news and a flash clip on the main page, tell me how much is worth. And there come across subjects who cannot be convinced. It is good that today we can afford not to work with such customers.
But there are people with whom you can work. They just don’t understand why goals should be set, they don’t see the difference between goals and objectives. They have never been taught this. Some even turn everything upside down. I will quote one of the entries in LJ:
I strongly disagree with this. The beast in this case is not the goal, but the target, the point of application of effort. The goal always lies outside the scope of activity. For example, activity is hunting. The goal is to feed the family. To achieve this goal, the hunter solves the problem: get meat, bring meat home, where the wife to achieve this goal will already begin her activity - cooking.
In turn, each of the tasks can be divided into subtasks. For example, to get meat, you need to track down the beast and kill it. To bring meat home, you need to separate pieces of meat, pack it for carrying, come home with it. To pack meat, you need resources - some kind of skin and rope. That is, a subtask appears: to carve out a piece of the skin and build a yagdtash. And so on.
The goal is what the activity is for. The task is what we solve in the course of activity in order to achieve the goal.
What are the goals for? The goal is a guideline. It is from the point of view of achieving the set goal that any activity should be evaluated.
Let's go back to the hunter example. You can kill a beast in a huge number of ways. For example, blow it to hell so that the guts in the neighborhood are scattered. Will the beast be killed? Undoubtedly. The task of "killing the beast" will be solved. But the goal of our hunt is to feed the family. If you focus on this goal, it becomes clear that the chosen method of killing the beast is unacceptable. Then the meat will not be collected. But if the purpose of the hunt was to rid the tribe of the raid of the cannibal beast, then this method could be suitable.
Moreover,the activity itself should also be evaluated in terms of achieving the goal . Say, today, to feed a family, you can go hunting. But resources (time, money, effort) will be used much more efficiently, and the risks will be much less if you go not to hunt, but to work, and then to the store.
Oops ;-) Guess what happened? Hint: the problem is not of a technical nature.
By the way, most customers do not know how to formulate the goals of creating a site. The questions “why do you want to make a site” are answered by something like “well, this one is outdated” or “inconvenient to administer”. Although the answer to the question “ why ” should even begin in a different way. For example, “ in order to sell our goods” or “ in order to attract investors”. To educate the customer and help him correctly formulate goals is part of our work.
Finding out goals and setting goals is one of the key points of website development. But not everyone agrees with this. Some people are surprised, they say, why are we going to talk about goals here, we need a website with news and a flash clip on the main page, tell me how much is worth. And there come across subjects who cannot be convinced. It is good that today we can afford not to work with such customers.
What is going on in the head
But there are people with whom you can work. They just don’t understand why goals should be set, they don’t see the difference between goals and objectives. They have never been taught this. Some even turn everything upside down. I will quote one of the entries in LJ:
Goals and objectives could be very different in scope. The general principle is the task of satisfying hunger, feeding a family, getting into a wild beast, using a bow and arrow. The target is the beast himself, and possibly the special, most vulnerable parts of his body.
I strongly disagree with this. The beast in this case is not the goal, but the target, the point of application of effort. The goal always lies outside the scope of activity. For example, activity is hunting. The goal is to feed the family. To achieve this goal, the hunter solves the problem: get meat, bring meat home, where the wife to achieve this goal will already begin her activity - cooking.
In turn, each of the tasks can be divided into subtasks. For example, to get meat, you need to track down the beast and kill it. To bring meat home, you need to separate pieces of meat, pack it for carrying, come home with it. To pack meat, you need resources - some kind of skin and rope. That is, a subtask appears: to carve out a piece of the skin and build a yagdtash. And so on.
The goal is what the activity is for. The task is what we solve in the course of activity in order to achieve the goal.
What are the goals for? The goal is a guideline. It is from the point of view of achieving the set goal that any activity should be evaluated.
Let's go back to the hunter example. You can kill a beast in a huge number of ways. For example, blow it to hell so that the guts in the neighborhood are scattered. Will the beast be killed? Undoubtedly. The task of "killing the beast" will be solved. But the goal of our hunt is to feed the family. If you focus on this goal, it becomes clear that the chosen method of killing the beast is unacceptable. Then the meat will not be collected. But if the purpose of the hunt was to rid the tribe of the raid of the cannibal beast, then this method could be suitable.
Moreover,the activity itself should also be evaluated in terms of achieving the goal . Say, today, to feed a family, you can go hunting. But resources (time, money, effort) will be used much more efficiently, and the risks will be much less if you go not to hunt, but to work, and then to the store.
Why people don’t like to set goals
Oops ;-) Guess what happened? Hint: the problem is not of a technical nature.