Mission, Goals

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Mission, Goals Objectives

• Yale Braunstein
• School of Information UC Berkeley

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(No Transcript)
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MGO

• Mission, Goals, Objectives form a hierarchy
• Terminology is NOT used consistently elsewhere,
  but we shall be VERY precise in our definitions
  and usage
• Your role To identify existing MGO for your
  system
• But, they do not always exist
• Or they may not be explicit
• Or there may be a mismatch with reality
• Importance of MGO varies across organizations,
  even with types (examples universities,
  governmental agencies, non-profit organizations,
  IT departments)

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Mission statement (1)

• Short statement of the overall purpose of the
  system, what it is and does.
• Can focus on services or outputs, and on clients
• Samples
• Reserve system at library provide users with
  materials that would often would be otherwise
  unavailable.
• Bookfinder.com provide fellow readers unbiased
  real-time information about books available
  online

(Anirvan calls this their goalas I mentioned,
usage is not consistent)
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Mission statement (2)

• Possibly more common in nonprofit sector than in
  for-profit sector
• But, compare Coke Pepsi (see links from course
  download page)
• Often written using infinitives
• "To boldly go "
• Or "to vigilantly fight the use of split
  infinitives"

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Goals

• Specific statement(s) of what the system intends
  to accomplish
• As a group, the goals encompass all the major
  functions of a system

• Examples
• My HMOs primary goals are (in order?)
• To save my employer money
• To aggravate both me and the healthcare providers
  who serve me
• To improve the delivery of health care to me

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Objectives - 1

• Subsidiary to goals
• Can ALWAYS be measured
• Specify date by which it will be accomplished

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Objectives 2A

• Examples from national policy (there are only a
  very few in U.S. history)
• First, I believe that this nation should commit
  itself to achieving the goal, before this decade
  is out, of landing a man on the moon and
  returning him safely to the earth.
  J.F.Kennedy, 25 May 1961
• U.S. troops out of Bosnia within a year Bill
  Clinton, 7 Dec. 1995. (See five-year timeline
  at http//www.pstripes.com/dec00/ed122000n.html )

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Objectives 2B

• Additional examples from national policy
• We will cure cancer by the end of this decade
  Sam Seaborn, rejected draft for President
  Bartlets 2002 Sate of the Union address (TWW
  episode 55)
• 100 Mbps broadband to 50 of US households and
  small businesses by end of 2004 TechNet policy
  statement, 15 Jan. 2002
• Focus changed to 100 million homes by 2010
• Full, free, and fair elections throughout Iraq
  in January 2005 (Secretary of State Colin
  Powell, September 26, 2004)

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The Model for Well-Stated Objectives

• Well-stated objectives should have four points
• To (action/verb)
• (single measurable result)
• by (target date/time span)
• at (cost in time or energy)

• Examples
• To submit a high-quality final project by May 13
  without completely burning out
• To complete my income tax return by April 15
  while spending less than 10 hours preparation
  time

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Additional items related to MGO

• Refining objectives
• Can ALWAYS be measured
• Specify date by which it will be accomplished
• Therefore a problem can arise when deadlines
  depend on each other.Example Release Version
  2.0 after completing beta testing AND complete
  beta tests prior to release of Version 2.0

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Output measures

• There is an obvious link between objectives and
  output measureswe should measure the correct
  things to determine whether the objectives have
  been met
• Output measures can be
• Objective or subjective (but NOT arbitrary)
• Quantitative or non-quantitative
• Discrete (yes/no, etc.) or scalar (, rank)
• Related to quantity or quality
• Surrogates for quality may be used
• (The TOGOs example)
• Possible digression on educational testing goes
  here

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General propositions on output measures

• Some measures are better than none
• Use measures from outside sources
• Use measures that are timely
• Develop different measures for different purposes
• Focus on the important measures
• Dont report more information than will be used
• Tie output measures to expense measures
• Use appropriate surrogates (Dont give more
  credence to surrogates than they are due)
• (Dont confuse inputs with outputs)