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These are qualitative descriptions of what you want to achieve. Objectives are high-level statements that can motivate (or challenge) your agile teams to deliver their best.
Best practices when setting Objectives:
Each team should have five objectives at most.
Objectives are qualitative and aspirational, not granular outcomes.
If you’re just starting your OKR practice, start with “roofshot objectives,” AKA goals that are hard but achievable. Success means achieving 100% of those goals.
As your OKR practice matures, graduate to “moonshot objectives,” AKA stretch goals that are beyond what’s deemed possible. Success means achieving 60% – 70% of the OKRs.
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These are the quantitative metrics used to measure if you’ve achieved your Objectives.
Best practices when setting Key Results:
Key results are quantitative and measurable, not to-do lists.
Each objective should have five key results at most.
Here’s an example of an OKR for a SaaS vendor:
Objectives | Key Results |
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Build a software that customers love. |
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Besides Objectives and Key Results, other components of an OKR are Initiative, Grade (or Score), Period (or Cadence), and Owner.
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The projects or activities that can help you deliver Key Results.
Best practices when setting Initiatives:
You may regard your team’s daily tasks as initiatives. For example, if you manage projects in Jira, then Jira issues are the initiatives.
If the initiatives aren’t helpful in delivering key results, modify them.
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Period is how often you evaluate and grade OKRs during a cycle and create new ones.
Best practices when setting Periods:
OKR may have dual planning periods: an annual cadence for company goals and a quarterly cadence for team and individual goals.
Conduct weekly check-in sessions to track goal progress.
Within less mature organizations, a custom shorter period (e.g., two months) is highly recommended.
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OKRs are usually graded on a scale of 0.0 to 1.0, with 1.0 being that an Objective is fully achieved.
Best practices when setting Grades:
The ideal OKR grade is 60% – 70% (or 0.6 to 0.7).
Consistently scoring lower or higher than the ideal grade means that the objectives are either unclear or not ambitious enough, respectively.
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Assign an Owner to every Key Result to foster accountability, transparency, and proper alignment.
Best practices when assigning an Owner:
Every OKR must have an owner.
Though employees can collaborate on OKRs, there’s just one person responsible for reaching the goal.
Your company’s OKR framework must be owned by someone. This person (AKA the Ambassador) is responsible for its ongoing maintenance and management.
The Ambassador can be one of the department managers, HR personnel, or even external consultants as long as they’re the OKR Subject Matter Experts.
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When implemented properly, the OKR framework can deliver 5 key benefits: focus, alignment, commitment, tracking, and stretching (F.A.C.T.S.). Now let’s see what F.A.C.T.S. means for individuals, teams, managers, and the company.
Benefits of OKR for Individuals | Benefits of OKR for Teams |
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Benefits of OKR for Managers | Benefits of OKR for Company |
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By following best practices when setting OKRs for your agile teams in Jira, you and your organization can enjoy the benefits listed above.