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Getting started with objectives and key results (OKRs)

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What are objectives and key results (OKRs)?

Objectives and key results (OKRs) are often adopted by organizations that want to be more outcome-driven. By setting objectives, you can establish accountability, which keeps your teams focused on outcomes rather than deliverables. This process allows departments within your organization to align on one or more objectives, innovating and iterating to meet customer demand. By measuring what matters and orienting your organization around outcomes, you can realize the value of your teams' efforts faster.

You use Planview OKRs to implement a goal-setting approach by performing the following tasks:

  • Define objectives to capture and track progress toward high-level goals your organization wants to achieve.
  • Define the key results that will capture and track progress toward different elements of your objectives.
  • Review the progress and adjust ongoing or future work as necessary.

Objectives can be connected OKRs—Planview AgilePlace objectives and Planview Portfolios objectives that are connected to each other in a parent-child relationship, sharing data across the Planview platform. For example, you could use connected OKRs if you are using Planview Portfolios for funding and investment capacity planning and AgilePlace for program/work delivery. The parent objective can be in either product.

For more detailed information about OKRs, see the following articles:

For general information about defining objectives and key results, see A Guide to OKRs: Mastering OKRs and Key Results.

Best practices

  • Teams and individuals should have no more than seven objectives.
  • Each objective should have no more than five key results.
  • Collaborate and agree on the goals you want to achieve as a team. Be realistic on what you can commit to and what are actually stretch goals.
  • Commit to using OKRs for a year to acclimate to the process and become more proficient in working with OKRs.

           

OKR levels

OKR levels allow you to track connected OKRs across organizational structures. Typically, OKRs have an enterprise or corporate level at the top and team-level OKRs at the bottom with various levels in between. Having multi-leveled OKRs allows for bidirectional goal alignment.

For example, Planview Portfolios has the following default OKR levels: Enterprise, Portfolio, Program, and Team.

Planview Admin administrators can manage OKR levels, including changing the names and adding or deleting levels, in Planview Admin. For more information, see Managing OKR Settings for Connected Products.

           

           

OKR custom attributes

Planview OKRs can include custom attributes, which are options with customized values that can help you capture and track more specific data that matches your organization's needs. For example, if you want to track how critical the need for an OKR is, you can use a custom attribute called OKR Priority with values of Must Have, Nice to Have, and Time Permitting, which can help you prioritize OKR work.

Each environment can have 10 custom attributes in addition to the two default attributes that are already included. Each custom attribute can be a text field, a numeric field, a date, or a list of options (single-select or multi-select).

Planview Admin administrators can create and configure custom attributes and their values and make them required or optional. Users can then set the values for the attributes when working with OKRs in in Planview AgilePlace and/or Planview Portfolios.

Custom attribute history

To access a detailed history of changes made to custom attributes, click History on an individual objective's or key result's screen in Planview Portfolios or Planview AgilePlace. The Activity Stream section on this tab lists who made changes to custom attribute and the details of those changes. You can use this history as an audit log of changes to values over time.