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The Better Business Analysis 
Institute presence. 

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The Better Business Analysis 
Podcast with Benjamin Walsh. 

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Hi everybody, and welcome back 
to the Better Business Analysis 

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Podcast with Benjamin Walsh. 
Now this week we're going to be 

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focusing on Smart Objectives. 
This is part of our BA Unleashed

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series and I know we've been 
focusing a lot on strategic 

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analysis and for some of you you
could have been a lot a bit lost

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in that. 
This is not necessarily what 80%

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of the population of BAS focus 
on. 

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However, it's so critical BAS 
are there to add value to the 

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business and how can you do that
without understanding what the 

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market conditions are and what 
the strategy of the business is,

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right. 
So we are going to be moving on 

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to where BAS typically may have 
heard of these terms. 

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I believe B as are best to 
define these with the executive 

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team. 
And what we're talking about are

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strategic SMART objectives, OK. 
And we're going to run through 

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what SMART stands for. 
It's an acronym and we're going 

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to talk about how strategic 
objectives shape our programs of

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work, our Epics and therefore 
user stories. 

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OK, so if you haven't heard of 
SMART objectives, then I would 

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recommend that you know you 
should, you should Google this 

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stuff specifically. 
SMART objectives are goals that 

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are specific, is measurable in 
achievable, A relevant and time 

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bound. 
They're commonly used in program

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and project management and also 
business planning. 

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They, they, they can be used for
both sides of the coin here and 

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they allow us this. 
The SMART method allows us to 

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ensure that the objectives are 
well defined and aligned with 

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our overall strategy, what we're
trying to achieve for like next 

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three years for example, right. 
So we're going to go through 

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SMART objectives, We're going to
talk about what SMART stands 

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for. 
SMART stands for specific, Yes, 

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for specific. 
What does that mean? 

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That means objectives should be 
clear and specific, leaving no 

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room for ambiguity. 
If everyone in the exec team, 

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everyone in the business unit 
doesn't know what this objective

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means, it's not right. 
Specific objectives should 

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answer the question of who, 
what, where, when and why. 

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So the five WS and you know you 
can add in the two HS as well in

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terms of how and how much 
because we'll be talking about 

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that on our second point which 
is MMM stands for measurable 

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objectives, should be 
quantifiable, allowing progress 

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to be tracked and measured. 
This helps us in determining 

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whether or not the objective has
been achieved or not. 

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And this is really important for
lots of reasons. 

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One, it's our guiding light and 
make sure that the projects and 

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programs and all the complexity 
that goes underneath these 

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strategic objectives always have
the eye on the prize. 

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If you do benefits realization, 
which is part of the Better 

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Business analysis, sorry, Better
Business case process here in 

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New Zealand and in the UK, if 
you know about benefits 

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realization and if you know 
about strategic logic mapping, 

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that's all here. 
OK. 

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This is the map. 
This is the map between your 

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problem statements, your 
objectives and your benefits. 

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This is so critical. 
OK. 

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So that's M measurable #3 is 
achievable. 

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Objectives should be realistic 
and attainable within the given 

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constraints such as resourcing 
and time and expertise and the 

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people you tone have around the 
organization. 

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And most importantly, if you 
bring in what we've learned over

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the last couple of weeks, is 
this achievable in the market 

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you're in? 
Is this actually achievable? 

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Here's one example when we talk 
about achievable and specific 

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and now moving on to I guess 
we've just covered measurable. 

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Here would be an example. 
We want to increase the amount 

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of new customers that we acquire
each month from 11:50 at our AT 

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Tim's mechanics store, OK. 
We want to do that by the end of

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2023. 
Now that is a specific 

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measurable that is achievable. 
OK. 

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We're increasing something that 
naturally happens. 

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We acquire 10 people, you know, 
organically and we want to 

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invest some time, some effort in
terms of uplifting that by 20% 

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from 11:50, OK. 
So that's something that's 

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achievable. 
If I said I wanted to increase 

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my customers from 10 to 500, 
unless I was a specific, you 

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know, Unicorn organization, 
that's not going to happen. 

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Achievable means that you can 
set goals that are achievable, 

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like I just said 20%. 
However, you can add a stretch 

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goal what's called 25%. 
So a stretch goal is sometimes 

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used at the end of strategic 
objectives to talk about say, 

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when a bonus should be paid out.
So your exec team could say, 

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well the goal is 20%. 
If we reach 25% that helps with 

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our cash flow and we're able to 
pay bonuses. 

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So this is where the bonus 
system and performance 

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management should come from, #4 
is relevant. 

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Objectives should be aligned 
with the overall strategy and 

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contribute to the greater goals 
of the organization. 

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So this means that someone's pep
project on the side that isn't 

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aligned with our strategy or 
someone who has come up with 

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something in the operational 
team if it doesn't align with 

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our strategy, don't try and fit 
the, you know the round peg and 

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the square hole these this is a 
top down process. 

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This is the way it should be 
done. 

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This is the three-year plan and 
you know and this is what we 

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should be focusing on, these 
smart objectives should be 

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meaningful and have a direct 
impact on the desired outcome, 

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OK, that that means that they're
relevant, they're relevant to 

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what we're trying to achieve 
with our vision for the 

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three-year period. 
You know it may not be three 

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years, it could be longer or 
shorter, but let's say three 

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years. 
So it needs to be relevant to 

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what we, what dials do we want 
to move. 

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You know what levers do we need 
to pull for our company as a 

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whole, which is why that's 
strategic. 

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And an MBA mindset that you've 
developed over the last couple 

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of weeks is so important #5 the 
last one is time bound. 

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So objectives should have a 
specific time frame or deadline 

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for completion. 
This helps setting priorities, 

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managing resources and tracking 
progress. 

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So this is when your strategic 
objectives can drop down to a 

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project plan or a program plan. 
And also at the end of the 

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objective you should say by the 
end of 2023, for example, if you

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think of a specific, measurable,
achievable, relevant and time 

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bound goal, you know the UN 
might say we we want to cut 

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global emissions by, you know, 
50% by the end of 2050 for 

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example. 
Some would say that might not be

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achievable based on the politics
around, you know, in this global

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world. 
But it is an achievable goal if 

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all the all the nations thought 
that this is what we should be 

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focusing on on as a as a world. 
By setting these smart strategic

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objectives, organizations are 
able to ensure that their goals 

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are well defined, achievable. 
Measurable. 

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OK. 
This approach promotes clarity 

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which is so important, 
accountability which is always 

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missing a focus and ultimately 
leads to more successful 

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outcomes for your organization. 
Smart objectives are awesome. 

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BAS are so good at helping to 
find those And if you, if you, 

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if you think some of the stuff 
we've covered in the last couple

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of weeks has been a little bit 
out there. 

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This is this is where the rubber
hits the road and where B as 

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should be involved of you know 
more than 50% of the BA 

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population should be involved in
this, especially if you are a 

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senior business analyst, OK. 
And if you're not a senior 

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business analyst, if you're not 
even ABA, then at least you can 

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see how organizational planning 
should take, should take place 

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and you can help your exec team 
get here. 

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You know, you should have a Max 
three to six of these. 

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If you're a small organization, 
I think 3 strategic objectives 

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is enough, right? 
And this should be your plan. 

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This should be the focus. 
This should be everything that 

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matters here. 
So strategic objectives, once 

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they're defined, then they can 
drop down in terms of a bit of a

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what are we going to do, how are
we going to meet them? 

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And in the agile world, we talk 
about what are called 

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initiatives or themes. 
They're usually one in the same,

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which then drop down to Epics. 
Now the if you talk about 

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hierarchy, strategic objectives,
Epics, and and initiatives, 

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sorry, strategic objectives, 
themes and initiatives are all 

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at the same level. 
Strategic themes in the agile 

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world should really be the kind 
of buzzword, the main focus of 

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the strategic objective. 
It shouldn't be a replacement 

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for or another layer of 
abstraction. 

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So we're increasing the amount 
of new customers we wanted for 

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our mechanic store and might be 
increased the amount of new 

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customers might be the short 
phrase we use as our theme. 

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It wouldn't be a replacement for
the long written form of that 

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would be our strategic 
objectives, OK. 

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And that the same goes for if 
you're using term initiatives 

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and that's when you that's the 
top pyramid of kind of the agile

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stack, this theme which then has
Epics underneath it. 

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So OK, So what what what I've 
just said there is that 

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strategic objectives are the 
same as themes. 

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So they're the things, themes 
are just the paraphrase word, 

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hopefully you don't you know 
lose any context by shortening 

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it and then the epics go 
underneath that. 

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So you might say as a mechanic 
store, I want to be able to 

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engage with a marketing firm to 
help work out how we can 

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increase new customer 
acquisition by 20% in the next 

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six months. 
So so that we can meet our goal 

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of gaining 20%, you know, more 
customers per month by the end 

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of 2023. 
That was a long sentence, but 

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you get the point. 
So you wouldn't necessarily need

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that last bit, which is the 
strategic objective because 

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we're already mapping up to it. 
But the epoch is there. 

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That is now a thing we can do. 
So that's the first step on the 

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road to success. 
And then of course user stories 

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can drop out of there, which 
might be task based you know, or

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they could be functional based 
or non functional based your 

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your requirements if you like. 
So that's exactly how we define 

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it. 
Epics are also called business 

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requirements. 
In the kind of pre agile world 

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they're one in the same. 
So these all map up to your 

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objectives. 
You've got your objectives, 

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you've got your business 
requirements and you've got your

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functional non functional 
requirements. 

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That's one world. 
Or you could say I've got my 

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themes, which are the shortened 
version of my strategic 

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objectives. 
I've got my epics and I've got 

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my stories. 
OK, that's how it works. 

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You can use either language, 
depending on your organization, 

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but that is how everything 
breaks down to your BA world 

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from here. 
Smart strategic objectives are 

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fantastic. 
They're awesome. 

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They help define programs, they 
help track where we're at, and 

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hopefully you've learned 
something today. 

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So if you don't know about 
objectives, your team doesn't 

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know why you're doing a piece of
work. 

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Ask for a copy of the strategic 
objectives for your organization

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and see how much your program 
aligns. 

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See you next time.