Sample Objectives and Outcomes Tracker
How we define objectives, measure them, and track progress during a Technology Leader Mentoring engagement.
Illustrative sample. The leader and "Cedar Valley Distribution" are fictional, and every objective, figure, and note on this page is invented to show the format.
Status at month 6
Objectives
Deliver a quarterly risk briefing the board can act on
DoneThe board had received one technical report a year and had never been asked to decide anything.
- Measure
- Briefings delivered, and board decisions recorded in the minutes
- Baseline
- One annual report, no decisions asked
- Target
- Two quarterly briefings, each with at least one decision
- Due
- Month 6
Mentor noteThe second briefing led the board to approve funding for MFA. Next step: replace the slide deck with a one-page scorecard.
Close the top three audit findings with the security budget held flat
On trackThree high findings had been open for 14 months, and the auditors had flagged them as repeat findings.
- Measure
- Findings closed and verified by internal audit; spend against budget
- Baseline
- Three high findings open
- Target
- All three closed; spend within 2% of budget
- Due
- Month 9
Mentor noteTwo are closed. The third, privileged access, depends on a vendor upgrade. We agreed to escalate to the vendor’s account executive now rather than wait.
Hire and onboard two security analysts
At riskThe CISO is the only security employee, which makes every incident and audit request a single point of failure.
- Measure
- Analysts hired and working in the on-call rotation
- Baseline
- No security staff besides the CISO
- Target
- Two analysts hired and in the rotation
- Due
- Month 8
Mentor noteTwo offers were declined on salary. Rather than lower the bar, the CISO will take market pay data to the CFO this month, with the cost of the current gap.
Renegotiate the managed security services contract
DoneThe contract renewed automatically every year with no response-time commitments.
- Measure
- Contract terms and annual cost
- Baseline
- $410K a year, no response-time SLA
- Target
- Response-time SLA in contract, cost flat or lower
- Due
- Month 5
Mentor noteRenewed at $372K a year with a 30-minute response SLA and quarterly service reviews. We rehearsed the negotiation in two sessions beforehand.
Build a working relationship with operations leadership
On trackWarehouse systems were changed without security review, and the operations team saw security as a blocker.
- Measure
- Standing meeting held; share of warehouse system changes reviewed by security
- Baseline
- No regular contact; no changes reviewed
- Target
- Monthly meeting; every warehouse system change reviewed
- Due
- Month 10
Mentor noteThe monthly meeting has run since month 3, and about half of changes are now reviewed. Next: agree a lightweight review step with the operations VP.
What the sponsor sees
The sponsor sees this tracker at each quarterly review: the objectives, the measures, and the status. Session discussions stay confidential between the leader and the mentor.
Once engaged, we build and maintain your tracker with you as part of the engagement.
Set Objectives Worth Tracking
Every mentoring engagement starts by agreeing three to five objectives and how we will know they are met.