GOST Framework
The GOST Framework is a method of clearly articulating a process for achieving a goal. It does this by decomposing it into it's various parts: [G]oals, [O]bjectives, [S]trategies, [T]actics. It helps distinguish between the objectives, strategies and tactics so that relevant stakeholders can focus on what's relevant to them.
Goals
A goal defines a broad primary outcome. This is the business driver and should relate to some specific benefit to the business. Strongly recommend defining a single goal.
Example: "Improve user productivity for most popular pages across our site"
The goal should not include any objectives, strategies or tactics. It's very high-level and should be easily understood by anyone in the business.
Objectives
List of measurable outcomes that will be achieved by executing the strategies. Objectives describe what will be achieved by the goal. This is the barometer for success. It's how we will know we've achieved our goal.
Example: "Reduce page load times by 25%"
Typically, these objectives are described using the following terms: "minimize", "increase", "reduce", "eliminate".
Strategies
The specific approach that will be taken to achieve a goal and objectives. They describe why the objectives will be met, therefore try to map all the strategies to the objectives.
Example: "Use caching to reduce page load times"
Strategies should not encompass any tactics. That is, there might be multiple tacts that can be executed to fulfill the strategy. This is geared towards the CIO/CTO audience that might not be well versed on the tactics. For example, "Use Caching to reduce page load times"
Tactics
Tactics describe how specific tools will be used to implement the strategies. Try to map the tools to the strategies.
Example: "Use Memcache to cache API responses"
Tactics describe the exact solution that will be implemented by the engineering team. Typically, this is a list of technologies (E.g. MySQL, Memcache, Kubernetes, Helm, Docker, etc)