Chapter 3 · Practice 2 of 3
Write objectives you can test at the final evaluation
Why it matters
Objectives are the promises the committee will hold you to. Each one should be something you can demonstrate or measure at the end, not an intention.
| Vague objective | Testable objective |
|---|---|
| To make inventory management easier | A pharmacist can record a medicine batch with its expiry date in under one minute |
| To use AI for prediction | Predict which batches will expire unsold, evaluated against three months of held-out records |
| To build a user-friendly app | At least five pharmacists complete the core tasks in a usability test without help |
Three to five objectives is usually enough. Each should map to a must feature from your scope and to a test you will run later. If an objective cannot be tested, rewrite it or drop it.
Do
- Write three to five objectives
- Link each objective to a test you will run
Avoid
- Objectives like "to learn", "to explore" or "to make easier" with no measure