Developing a balanced scorecard model for evaluation of project management and performance

Project performance relies upon effective project management. Indeed, project management has been recognized as an important means for making changes in the organisation. Efficiency in project management, obviously, enhances the probability of project success, which consequently helps the organization to achieve its strategic mission and gain competitive advantage. Hence, it is critical that project-based companies, particularly construction companies, understand how they have performed and how they should perform in future. Numerous writers have suggested various ways to evaluate construction company performance as a whole. Yet very few have focused specifically on project management and performance evaluation. In addition, construction project performance assessment has not been extensively investigated in Malaysia. The principal aim of the study is to develop a generic model of project management and performance evaluation for the Malaysian construction industry. Based on the Balanced Scorecard approach, the model incorporates comprehensive measures for project performance by taking into account various stakeholder views and construction industry needs. To support the objective, the study employed three phases of data collection: semi-structured interviews, questionnaire survey and a case study. The interviews and survey offer insight and help to identify performance perspectives and indicators relevant to construction project performance. Meanwhile, the case study provides an empirical investigation of the application of performance assessment in a real-life context. The study suggests the resultant Construction Measurement Performance Assessment (COMPASS) model can be used as a self-assessment management tool to evaluate construction project performance. COMPASS comprises five performance perspectives, namely financial; project customer satisfaction; internal project processes; health, safety and environment; and learning and development. The model has been modified from the BSC concept in order to make it more appropriate for construction projects. The changes include integrating the performance drivers (enablers) and outcome measures (performance results) and re-labelling the perspectives. The performance perspectives have been positioned in circular format to indicate the iterative process that supports the implementation of project performance assessment. Rather than merely seeing these perspectives in a hierarchical cause and effect relationship, the performance perspectives influence one another and need to be reviewed consistently in order to ensure they remain relevant to the changing environment. In addition, the study results indicate the weighting and performance indicators for each of the perspectives, which it is argued can serve as a guideline to direct project performance towards the company's objectives. The findings are basically derived from the contractor 's point of view. Interesting results can be obtained if the study involves other stakeholders such as the clients and consultants in future research. This allows comparative evaluations to be conducted. Besides, it would be valuable to further explore the application of the Balanced Scorecard/COMPASS approach in construction as this would contribute significant benefits to the industry.