Benchmarking success of building maintenance projects

Purpose - This paper aims to develop a project success index (PSI) to benchmark the performance of building maintenance projects from a number of key performance indicators (KPIs). Design/methodology/approach - The research collected 110 responses from project participants with managing building maintenance project experience of the Hong Kong construction industry via ordinary postal mail. In addition, a project success equation was formulated from the principal components analysis to generate a composite score so as to indicate the level of success of building maintenance projects. Findings - Industry participants believe that time, cost, quality, functionality, safety and environmental friendliness can be considered as KPIs for building maintenance projects. A single index can also be computed from the project success equation to apply different weightings to the respective KPI with different significance such that the performance of building maintenance projects can be compared. Practical implications - The concept of success remains vague among project participants, which makes it difficult to assess whether the performance of a project is a success or failure. The development of PSI can indicate the overall performance of a building maintenance project and quantify the success concept in a scientific manner. Originality/value - PSI-Mains indicates the success level of a building maintenance project for benchmarking purposes. It also enables project stakeholders to measure the success of a building maintenance project and to compare the relative success level among different building maintenance projects in a scientific manner.