Establishing quantitative indicators for measuring the partnering performance of construction projects in Hong Kong

Research into Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for partnering projects in construction becomes vital because an increasing trend of client organizations has been observed to introduce a partnering approach to their building and construction works internationally during the last decade. A Partnering Performance Index (PPI) has been developed for construction projects in Hong Kong. The PPI can assist in developing a benchmark for measuring the performance of their partnering projects. However, it is worth noting that assessors may have their own semantic interpretations on each KPI. The aim of this paper is to establish suitable quantitative indicators (QIs) and reasonable quantitative ranges (QRs) for each KPI in order to avoid any possible discrepancies in interpreting the meaning of each KPI and provide objective evaluation results based on quantitative evidence. By conducting five structured face-to-face interviews and two rounds of a Delphi questionnaire survey in Hong Kong, a set of QIs were developed to measure the seven most important KPIs, including: (1) time performance; (2) cost performance; (3) top management commitment performance; (4) quality performance; (5) trust and respect performance; (6) effective communications performance; and (7) innovation and improvement performance. The identified QIs and QRs could assess and compare different partnering projects on a common basis objectively, thus helping to set a benchmark for measuring the performance level of partnering projects in Hong Kong. Construction senior executives and project managers can thus apply the QIs and QRs to measure, evaluate and improve the existing performance of their partnering projects in order to strive for construction excellence.