Process performance indicators in project pre-design stage

Traditionally performance in construction is measured based on the iron-triangle - time, cost and quality. In recent years indicators have been developed to include the measurements of other aspects of project performance. The main shortcoming of these however is that most of them are lagging indicators and hence are of little use for controlling the performance during the projects. This paper reviews the existing key performance indicators, their types, use and shortcomings. The paper describes a proposed conceptual framework for developing performance indicators for the pre-design stage, of which the briefing process is an important part. In this framework a process mapping methodology is suggested to identify the main activities that take place in the pre-design phase, the dependencies between them and the stakeholders involved. Initial investigation of the proposed framework has shown that it is a viable model that has already helped in identifying the relevant processes of the pre-design phase and the related indicators

Process performance for control of project goals in construction

The construction industry is project-based, dynamic in nature and involves many participants with different interests. The concept of project performance is not yet clearly defined in the construction industry. However, it has different meanings for different stakeholders but the overall objective for all of them is the same: they all want the project to succeed. Traditionally performance in construction is measured based on what is so called the iron-triangle - time, cost and quality. In recent years indicators have been developed to include the measurements of other aspects of project performance. A major shortcoming of these however is that the existing performance indicators are static in nature and are used to measure the performance after the work or the project is complete. Hence, they reflect a statement of the post-event without any opportunity to change the process while it is in progress. Many of the indicators are also focused on the product and not on the process. There are few existing indicators that can be used to inform stakeholders of how well their process is going during the various stages. This main shortcoming of existing performance indicators creates a background for this research. This research aims at developing a set of generic key performance indicators that can be used for measuring process performance. The intention is not only to compare actual performance with target performance, but to use the indicators to inform the management for the need for control and therefore prevent the potential problems that might occur in the future. Until now there was no answer found to the main research question of this project: how the performance of the construction project can be measured and controlled during the life of the project to provide the right information in the right timing for right people . To answer this research question the research methodology is developed and includes three main stages. The first stage aims at mapping the construction process by providing a process framework. The second stage involves the collection of data to identify the main activities, their inputs and outputs and stakeholders involved. Based on the results of the second stage the third stage will be concerned with the developing key performance indicators. This stage will involve determining how the various key performance indicators can be modeled to measure the project performance. The developed set of indicators will then be tested on the real projects to determine their effectiveness on real projects. The measurement of the construction processes in dynamic will be the first challenge of the model. The second challenge is to show through the mapping of construction process the communication between main groups of stakeholders. Communication between stakeholders is one of the most important aspects during construction process. Until now communication exists only as an individual indicator. The idea of proposed model is to enable the communication between main groups of stakeholders during the life of the project on the activity level

Proposed system for measuring project performance using process-based key performance indicators

Despite some evidence of its usefulness, performance measurement by using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in the construction industry also has its critics. Among the shortcomings attributed to existing KPIs is the fact that almost all of them are product oriented. This means that the indicators are mostly used for review purposes after a project is completed and do not provide the opportunity to control the work whilst the project is still in progress. Many researchers have agreed on the need for a new approach that considers the construction process and allows active control. This paper describes the design of a proposed generic system for measuring process performance. As a basis for measuring process performance, the proposed measurement system relies on a series of questions related to both process completeness and process quality. The structure of the measurement system is on the basis of the findings of an earlier stage of the research that had resulted in the development of a number of process-based KPIs and the key issues they encompass. The appropriateness of the proposed measurement system has been tested on two on-going projects. The testing has shown that the proposed system produces relatively accurate indications of actual performance of construction projects. In this research, it was not possible to test the validity or the effectiveness of the proposed measurement system for control in practice. This is because of the long timescales involved in real-life projects and because of the possible influence of control actions taken by project management between the various processe