Measurement of Construction Phase Success of Projects

This paper presents a metric for measuring the success of the construction phase of projects. This metric differs from other success metrics in that it is quantitatively derived, and secondly, it deals with a single project phase. The impetus of this research was the need for a quantitatively-based construction phase success metric on a simple and measurable scale. Data used in this research are from the Construction Industry Institute's Benchmarking and Metrics (BM&M) database. Specifically investigated are 209 North American, fast-track, domestic, heavy and light industrial projects in excess of $15 million from the data base. Scoring ranges based on statistical distributions for construction cost growth, construction schedule growth, lost workday case incident rates, and rework factor are presented. An empirical equation is presented for calculating the construction phase success metric on a scale of 0–10. Construction phase success scores are calculated for projects, and a relative frequency distribution for construction phase success is presented, against which owners and contractors can benchmark their performances.