November 24, 2008 at 1:48 pm
I have to complete the dreaded six month evaluation and one of the sections is on goals of course. They recommend you use the S.M.A.R.T. goal format (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time bound). Aside from saying I plan on reading two business related books in the next year, what else can I say as a db developer (with some web development) that will have a measurable result?
The other kicker is that I am right in the middle of ending a nine month project and going into a new project. I know I will probably be doing db development, some web development, some requirements gathering and UI design/development. I want to learn as much as I can and be as helpful as possible to the team but that's not really a measurable goal. I don't know what to say. Any suggestions?
November 24, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I always hated those. The hard part in my opinion is the measurable. I mean is it lines of code written, sp's created?
If you are starting a brand new project now, why not tie the goals into the project. Something like:
Db Design completed by x
Initial web site up by x
Now, those may not be the exact goal, but it not only helps you get through the review, but into the project plan. You can then add professional development goals and any other responsibilities.
Jack Corbett
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November 24, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Thanks for the suggestions and empathy! I actually have not discussed the project on anything but a very high level so I really don't know what the project deadlines are. I also don't know exactly what I'll be doing.
Like you said, I could say something like "Well, I promise to create good sps that don't create a lot of crap in the db." But I doubt that would fly.
Any other ideas?
November 30, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Maybe you could target meeting some SLAs, perhaps responding to all requests within xx days or answering all emails within a day or something that shows you are working well with others.
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December 2, 2008 at 8:15 am
I would honestly recommend passing this back to your manager. They are best positioned to identify or at least assist with setting your SMART goals. They should have the awareness of the business direction and what should be needed of you in the next 6 months.
If they don't, then they shouldn't be your manager.
In an effort to assist push up one or two things that you feel are good goals but let the majority trickle down. You aren't in a position to know how things are going to change and what direction things might suddenly take. Don't put yourself in a position to fail.
Additionally, review your goals with your manager throughout the 6 months, ensure that any changes are reflected in your SMART goals. Work with and have frequent one on one's with your manager to check your progress towards those goals.
December 2, 2008 at 9:07 am
Liz Ofstad (11/24/2008)
I want to learn as much as I can and be as helpful as possible to the team but that's not really a measurable goal.
Depends how you phrase it -
I will find two (or however many you want) opportunities for efficiency in my current process and present possible improvement strategies to leadership.
I will dedicate X hours a week to training other members of the team, resulting in a stronger, more diverse workforce.
I will attend only necessary meetings (identified by agendas and topics defined before the meeting) <-- that one's a little weak, how about
I will only call necessary meetings, and will have agendas and topic lists for all attendees prior to the meeting adjournment.
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December 2, 2008 at 9:29 am
Here are a few things that may help...
Watch x webcasts a quarter/month.
Attend x community events such as user groups.
Take a test toward a certian certification. (you don't have to pass, you just have to attempt)
Write an article or publish a script on a site like this.
Complete projects or given tasks by the assigned due date.
Learn something new and present it to the group over a lunch and learn.
December 2, 2008 at 9:44 am
But wait there's more...
These are a little less measureable, but if you give an example of when you did each one, you have met your goal.
Performance Goals
1. Customer Focus - Complete projects on time and exceed customer expectations.
2. Conflict Management - Manage conflicts so they become an opportunity to learn new perspectives. Take the time to carefully sort through the various perspectives and then work towards resolution.
3. Motivating Others - Put the spotlight on people responsible for big and little successes. Always give credit where it is due, and publicly celebrates accomplishments and achievements.
December 2, 2008 at 11:41 am
I like to tie at least some of my objectives to those that filter down through my management chain. Companies I’ve worked for that employ this approach typically have asked us to create three to five S.M.A.R.T objectives per review period. I normally try to tie three of the five to corporate/management objectives (per their suggestion), with the others related to teamwork and professional development (many good suggestions for those have been provided in this post).
If you are preparing for an upcoming review, I would definitely create a couple of performance objectives/results that tie to the current year’s management objectives. If you’re not sure how the projects you have worked on tie to the corporate objectives, that’s where your manager should be able to help. For example, if one of the corporate objectives was to increase revenue 10% over last year and you worked on a project to enhance the company’s website, maybe the project was expected to generate a portion that revenue. If you are developing an application that will enhance the customer experience by helping to provide better or more efficient customer service, perhaps that’s another revenue-generating (or cost saving) project. Maybe your work on upgrading servers can be tied to a corporate objective of reducing costs by 5%.
You will likely have at least 1-2 layers of management objectives between the corporate objectives and those you’re being asked to create…use those as a guide and list the specific tasks you have completed (or will complete) on the applicable projects.
For the upcoming year, you may have to start with the standard professional development type goals and add to them as the year unfolds.
December 3, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Thanks so much for all the suggestions! I ended up using pretty much all of them and I will also work with my boss for any others since I don't really know what I'll be doing. I love this website!!
Liz
December 3, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Glad we could help, and I'd be interested to see what you come up with, if you can share. Be sure you get permission from your boss to do so.
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May 9, 2010 at 6:33 pm
I think that the best thing you could do in this situation is recruit the help of your supervisors.
They have had to set SMART goals at some point and time in their career so I am pretty sure that they will be willing to give you some advice and point you in the right direction.
Also your supervisors will know where your goals should be, because your goals should reflect that of the company or fit into the company's strategic objectives, goals, strategies and measures (OGSM), so it will be futile to set yiura goals without knowing and aliging with your company's.
Make sure that you include a couple of things that you are personally interested in and ask for that to be added to your goals but I would definitely let the rest come from your supervisors because you will have a better chance of reaching your goals.
May 9, 2010 at 9:49 pm
Heh... SMART goals. The last time I had to fill one of those out, I listed some major accomplishments for the year and then asked them a question...
1. Rewrote the dupe check process so that in ran in 11 minutes across the required 93 databases instead of taking 24 hours to fail on just 62 databases.
2. Wrote a name splitter for the IVR systems that would split 1.2 million names with and without titles in less than 2 minutes with only a 0.01% rejection rate.
3. Wrote the IVR system from womb-to-tomb including 1.2 million customer uploads over a 400 mile long haul line, the acceptance of payments through credit cards and ACH, totally autonomous operation from the database incase the lines go down, and zero downtime/ zero errors since inception 9 months ago, in 37 hours... straight.
4. Isolated the source of the 640 deadlocks per day we were having and made a fix. Deadlocks dropped to 12 the next day and there have been several weeks without any deadlocks at all.
5. Wrote an ETL import system that would import, clean, and glean 1 million rows and isolate bad rows in a separate table in 51 seconds on the old server.
6. Resolved more than 1200 trouble tickets some of which took days of research and coding.
7. Wrote and tested code for the "Reconciliation" project in six days. Two developers had been assigned to this project for a year and had made virtually no progress (no code was written). It got pushed on me after those two developers quit the company.
I intend to continue with such accomplishments as needed over the next year. Now, what goals do you want me to set that would meet your expectations?
😉
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