Developing a multi-criteria index for government projects performance

Abstract

ABSTRACT Current project management practices recognize at least six competing constraints that need to be balanced and prioritized in order to maximize the probability of achieving project success. However, the market tends to measure the success through limited metric(s), which mainly focuses in the time performance. This study established a performance metric, which takes into consideration project financials, risks and issues in addition to time which is a step toward shifting the focus to other success criteria. The validity and sanity of the overall formula was checked by a series of steps. The validation was conducted by a parametric study, which included trend checks, checking the extreme values, normalizations, and finally to an expert focus group to improve, validate, and the index. The formula was then applied to ongoing projects data, which showed reliable results. The developed project performance index can be widely used in overseeing portfolios’ overall status or comparing performance between different functional units. The index is flexible and can be adapted to incorporate more criteria to get a holistic overview of projects’ health.