Key performance indicators to measure design performance in construction

The performance of design activities for a construction project can have a significant impact on the overall performance and efficiency of the project. Design activities need to be monitored to assure excellent progress. Performance indicators can help in this process. In the context of the construction industry in Canada, the identification of specific construction performance indicators to assess a construction project performance across the project's phases are yet to be formulated and documented. Therefore, there is a need to develop such indicators for the Canadian construction industry. This paper introduces a framework for a model to measure the performance of design activities using performance indicators for construction projects in Canada. The development of the framework is based on data and information gathered from literature and through a web-base survey that was constructed to identify indicators which affect the design performance. The significance and quantification of design performance indicators were determined using statistical analysis. Nine groups of indicators for commercial construction projects, heavy construction projects, and general set of indicators that could be use with any type of construction projects have been identified. Using the results of the survey, the Model for Design Performance Measurement (MDPM) was developed and is introduced and briefly described in this paper. The model can measure, predict, and track the performance of the design activities. The MDPM uses the standards Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method to evaluate the scores of the selected indicators and rank projects accordingly.