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Objectives and Key Results

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Objectives and Key Results

The Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) capability’s enablers include Enterprise OKRs, Portfolio OKRs, Program OKRs, and Team OKRs. Each capability within the Planview Capability Framework has a distinct set of features and functionality, business processes, best practices, and analytics and reports that deliver value to customers in the form of specific business outcomes.

Enablers and Business Outcomes

Enterprise OKRs

Define the company-level objectives. These are informed by your long-term strategy for the organization. Resulting business outcomes include:

  • We can understand the enterprise/company-level strategy and objectives.

Portfolio OKRs

Crystallize your strategic themes and investment objectives. OKRs owned by the Portfolio should demonstrate the contribution of epics towards desired outcomes and help you with investment decision-making. Resulting business outcomes include:

  • We can demonstrate the contribution of epics towards desired outcomes and make investment decisions at the portfolio level.

Program OKRs

Program OKRs assist with vision setting and provide context as epics are unpacked, looking for features that will contribute to the defined objectives. Resulting business outcomes include:

  • We can understand how best to contribute to the defined objectives and how epics are informing them.

Team OKRs

Team OKRs align with features and provide discipline when articulating outcomes rather than solutions. Resulting business outcomes include:

  • We can track against the features being delivered and get early awareness of the provided value.

Best Practices

Align OKRs to business strategy

Connecting and aligning goals at every level of the organization is one of key benefits of the OKRs framework – everyone wins when they understand how their work fits into the big picture strategy of the organization. Using an objective hierarchy – where enterprise or corporate strategy-level objectives are defined, then teams define their objectives to align to the strategy-level or levels in between – allows organizations to have bidirectional goal alignment.

Use informal language for objectives

The purpose of objectives in the OKR structure is to challenge companies to reach toward lofty, intimidating goals. Many organizations choose to use simple and informal language to write their objectives – this is intentional. To be effective, objectives must be easy to communicate and easy to understand.

Define your objectives properly

Objectives are simply defined by what is to be achieved, and should be ambitious (big-picture, aspirational), qualitative (able to be defined verbally in concrete terms), actionable (able to be implemented in current conditions), and time-bound (a timeline should be defined in the objective itself). Look at examples of OKRs from other organizations to get a better understanding of how to define OKRs.

Define specific and measurable key results

Key results make your objective actionable and determine how progress toward your objective will be measured. Key results give team members a clear-cut way of knowing whether they’re making progress, and provide leadership a subjective way of assessing performance. Key results should be measurable, specific, time-bound, and verifiable. Look at examples of OKRs from other organizations to get a better understanding of how to define key results.

Track early versus lagging indicators

Ensure the metrics you measure for key results can be collected and analyzed during the time period specified for the OKR. Many business metrics – such as revenue – are lagging indicators, and not timely or accurate enough to determine the impact of one specific change.

Reevaluate OKRs if progress slows

It can be helpful to look for patterns in OKR scoring to gauge whether your OKRs are sufficiently “sized” for your organization or team. Similarly, if your organization is struggling to make meaningful progress on most of its goals, then you might need to adjust the size or quantity of your OKRs moving forward to make them more achievable.

Create shared OKRs

Create shared OKRs if your OKRs overlap with another team’s goals.

Processes and Reports

conceptual image_okrs.jpg

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are an outcome-driven framework adopted by organizations who want to define key organizational goals and track progress toward achieving them. Defining OKRs creates organizational clarity by enabling organizations to answer the questions “Where do we want to go?” (Objectives) and “How will we measure our efforts to get there?” (Key Results). OKRs can be created at different levels of an organizational structure – such as enterprise, portfolio, program, or team – and are connected using parent/child relationships. Linking organizational and team goals in a hierarchical way aligns work delivery to company strategy, and provides a single line of sight into value delivered by the organization.

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OKRs in AdaptiveWork Process Steps           

           

Clarizen OKRs Process Flow.jpg

OKRs in AdaptiveWork process flow

           

Process Step Description
Create the project (team)     Create the project (or)
Create the program Create the program (or)
Create the portfolio Create the portfolio.
Add and define related objectives  From the project, program, or portfolio, add a related objective. Existing objectives may be reused, or a new objective may be created.
Create and define the related targets

From the objective, add a related target. Existing targets may be reused, but more commonly a new target will need to be created.

Once the target is saved, define the target attributes and other information. Common fields to track are Description, Unit, Unit Type, Unit Scale, Initial Value, Initial Date, Target Value, Target Date. 
Create and define the contributions    
 

From the target, portfolio, or work item, add a related contribution. 

Once the contribution is saved, add planned dates and values, attributes, etc. The Unit field will always be inherited from the target that it is linked to.

The Planned and Actual Value fields of all Contributions linked to the same target will roll up to the Direct Planned and Actual Contribution values of that Target respectively.
Add actual value and dates Keep Planned Value, Date, Actual Value, and Date fields up to date.

           

           

OKRs in AgilePlace Process Steps

           

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OKRs in AgilePlace process flow

           

Process Step Description
Create and define board-level objectives

Create and define an objective. Objectives should be ambitious, definable in concrete terms, and able to be implemented in current conditions and timebox.

For more information:
Align with relevant child objectives

Connect parent objective to child objectives in relevant boards using parent-child relationships.
Define current and target metrics (key results) for objectives

Define key results for objectives. Key results should be clearly defined, measurable, and easily verifiable within a realistic timeline.
Align key results with activities (cards)

Connect cards on boards to key results by adding or connecting activities to key results. Your OKR board will update to show the connected cards contributing to key result progress.
Monitor progress through key results

Board owners should periodically review and update the current state of key results to see whether they are making progress toward the objective.This updates the progress percentage complete for both the key result and the objective. The objective's progress is calculated as an average of the connected key results' progress.

           

TIP

  • Track progress towards OKRs using early indicators, such as website traffic, app usage, and in-app feedback.
  • Use direct customer feedback through social media engagement, focus groups, and other channels to assess the progress of any given initiative.
  • Objectives can be long-lived (one year or longer), while key results evolve as the work progresses.

           
Adjust strategic plan as necessary As progress toward key results is made, periodically review the overall strategic plan to ensure that focus remains on the right initiatives and activities.

           

           

OKRs in Planview Portfolios Process Steps

           

NOTE

Customers will need to onboard to Planview Admin to get access to OKRs in Portfolios.

           

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OKRs in Planview Portfolios process flow

           

Process Step Description
Create and define objectives

When creating an objective, identify an owner for the objective and supporting information such as start/end dates and tasks. Objectives should be ambitious, definable in concrete terms, and able to be implemented in current conditions and timebox. 

The strategic hierarchy allows you to track OKRs at all levels of the hierarchy. Having multi-leveled OKRs allows for bidirectional goal alignment. 

For more information:

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)
Align with relevant child objectives

When filling out details for your objective, you can connect objectives using parent-child relationships across your strategic hierarchy .
Create and define current and target metrics (key results) for objectives 

Define key results for objectives. Key results should be quantitative, time-bound, and easily verifiable. 
Align key results with activities (work)

Connect work items to key results.  Your OKR board will update to show the work items contributing to key result progress.
Monitor progress through key results 

Monitor OKR health and periodically review and update the current state of key results to see whether they are making progress toward the objective. This updates the progress percentage complete for both the key result and the objective. The objective's progress is calculated as an average of the connected key results' progress.

           

TIP

  • Track progress towards OKRs using early indicators, such as website traffic, app usage, and in-app feedback.
  • Use direct customer feedback through social media engagement, focus groups, and other channels to assess the progress of any given initiative.
  • Objectives can be long-lived (one year or longer), while key results evolve as the work progresses.

           
Adjust OKRs as necessary  As progress toward key results is made, periodically review the overall strategic plan to ensure that focus remains on the right initiatives and activities.

           

Related Capabilities

Supported Solutions

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