Goal-oriented or goal-driven/goal-directed/purposive is a property of systems which are able to think/reason/inference using symbols.

In the case of a sub-symbolic reasoning the concept goal is not "visible"/perceived neither for the reasoning system nor for its observer.

To be goal-oriented is the concept which is included in the ontologies of systemics, cognitive science and engineering.

A system, person, human organization is goal-oriented when it tends to achieve a goal and demonstrates it in every subsequent action.

In engineerring, every constructed system, device, instrument is goal-oriented. In psychology, socio-cognitive research and Artificial Intelligence, human rational behaviour is also goal-oriented. In organization sciences, the identification of an intervention goal of an individual and his/her goal-oriented behaviour, is more complex because, in real situation,

- every human usually has more than one goal,

- declared goal can be not congruent with his/her behavior,

- organization goals can not be the goal of its employers.

In system design

Goal-oriented approach to the specification of the requirements is well seen in the subject mater literature, See Google: Goal-oriented , requirements.

In the case of the specification or identification of complex engineering system, for example, the methodology of the TOGA meta-theory, integrates top-down and object-based ontology with a formal goal-oriented approach.

See also top-down and goal-oriented approaches.

Useful Links

- system thinking

- system design

- conceptual design

- software engineering

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