The concept of "goal" and related concepts such as "purposiveness," "goal-directedness," and "expediency" are associated with the development of a system. The development of a system is meaningful only when it is linked to a goal. One definition of a system is a means of achieving a goal.
Depending on the stage of understanding the object and the phase of systems analysis, the concept of "goal" takes on various nuances — from ideal aspirations to specific goals as final results achievable within a certain time interval, sometimes even formulated in terms of the end product of activity.
If a goal is stated abstractly or lies beyond reach, it is meaningless to speak of choosing a trajectory to attain it; in such cases, one can only choose a direction for the system's development. As knowledge of the system deepens, it becomes possible to specify the desired end state more precisely. Thus, the understanding and formulation of a goal depend on the depth of knowledge about the system and may be refined and made more specific as understanding of the system evolves.
Goal:
- A result toward which efforts are directed.
- An image of a desired future (subjective goal) or an actual future state (objective goal).
- An ideal or real object of conscious or unconscious aspiration of a subject; the final result toward which a process is intentionally directed; a conscious image of an anticipated result.
- A situation or range of situations that must be achieved through the functioning of a system within a specified period of time. A goal may be defined by requirements for indicators of effectiveness, resource intensity, or timeliness of the system's functioning, or by the trajectory for achieving a given result. As a rule, a goal for a system is determined by the higher-level system (supersystem) — namely, the one in which the system under consideration is an element.
- Goals link the present with the future, serving as results to be achieved and providing feedback from the future to the present.
- That which one strives for, what must be accomplished. In philosophy, a goal (of action, of activity) is one of the elements of behavior and conscious human activity that characterizes the anticipation in thought of the result of activity and the path to its realization by means of specific forms, methods, and tools. A goal serves as a way to integrate various human actions into a certain sequence, a system.
- One of the central categories of systems theory and systems analysis. Like all abstract categories, it has a very broad interpretation and various readings. Goals are defined as the desired state of a system, as a specific response at the system's output, as an invariant of the system's behavior (whatever behavior the system exhibits, it tends toward a certain point). Systems analysis is above all a practical applied discipline, and therefore all researchers in this field constantly emphasize that goals are inseparable from the means of achieving them. What constitutes goals from one perspective constitutes means from another. What is expedient to do often depends on what is possible to do. (Chernyak Yu.I., "Systems Analysis in Economic Management").
The goals that a person sets are rarely achievable solely through their own capabilities or the external resources available to them at the moment. When such a conjunction of circumstances occurs, it is called a problem situation. Progress through a problem situation typically moves through several stages: from a vague feeling that "something is wrong," to the realization of a need, then to the identification of the problem, and finally to the formulation of a goal. A goal is a subjective image (an abstract model) of a non-existent but desired state of the environment that would resolve the problem that has arisen. All subsequent activity aimed at solving this problem is directed toward achieving the stated goal. (Peregudov F.I., Tarasenko F.P., "Introduction to Systems Analysis").