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USING KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

LITERATURE

Article in Proceedings of International Structural Engineering and Construction · November 2022

DOI: 10.14455/ISEC.2022.9(2).CON-12

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 Proceedings of International Structural Engineering and Construction, 9(2), 2022
Achieving Technical Excellence with Data Analytics
in Materials, Structural Engineering and Construction
Edited by Vimonsatit, S., Askarinejad, H., Singh, A., and Yazdani, S.
Copyright © 2022 ISEC Press
ISSN: 2644-108X
www.doi.org/10.14455/ISEC.2022.9(2).CON-12

USING KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS IN

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT LITERATURE
HANDAN KUNKCU1, KERIM KOC2, HOULJAKBE HOULTEURBE DAGOU2,
and ASLI PELIN GURGUN2
1
Dept of Civil Engineering, Eskisehir Technical University, Eskisehir, Turkey
2
Dept of Civil Engineering, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are one of the prominent concepts used for
performance measurement, which is an integral part of project management. KPIs are
widely and effectively used to monitor, measure, and evaluate the performance and
production of project management team in the construction industry. It is therefore
necessary for construction projects to complete the project in the budget, time, quality,
safety, and satisfaction specified in the contract. This paper provides a review to explore
KPIs used in construction project management to measure the performance of
construction projects. A comprehensive review was performed to compile KPIs
proposed by relevant studies from the Scopus database. Based on the comprehensive
literature review, performance of cost, time/schedule and quality, client satisfaction, and
effective communication were identified as the most important KPIs in the construction
project management domain. Overall, this study presents insights into KPIs and can give
an idea to identify trends of KPIs, which is of great importance for the construction
project management in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and quality.
Keywords: Construction management, Journal, Article, Performance measurement,
Project management.

1 INTRODUCTION
The construction industry is a challenging and dynamic industry (Rehman et al. 2020) and the way
construction projects are management varies each day due to the utilization of new technologies
and innovative solutions (Dawood 2010). In spite of the advancements in technology and
innovation for construction companies to keep up with the competition, the construction industry
has contended chronic performance issues such as delays, cost overrun, and quality defects
(Enshassi et al. 2012, Rathnayake and Ranasinghe 2020). Therefore, performance measurement of
construction projects can be an effective and better way of boosting the performance in the
construction industry. In this regard, key performance indicators (KPIs) have widely been used to
evaluate the performance of construction projects, since vital statistics provided by KPIs are of a
great benefit in reflecting the quality of outputs and outcomes of a project (He et al. 2021). KPIs
are not universal; and thus, can change from organization to organization (Dwivedi and Madaan
2020).
In the construction management literature, many researchers have widely used both qualitative
and quantitative KPIs to evaluate the performance of projects. Bingol and Polat (2017), for
instance, developed KPIs to measure the managerial capabilities of subcontractors. Cox et al.
(2003) and Yeung et al. (2012) identified KPIs for the construction industry to measure

CON-12-1
Vimonsatit, S., Askarinejad, H., Singh, A., and Yazdani, S. (eds.)

performance and monitor productivity during construction phase. He et al. (2021) proposed a list
of KPIs specific for mega construction projects, and determined 23 key indicators and grouped
them into five categories. Dawood and Sikka (2009) developed nine KPIs for 4D-based
performance measurements within the construction industry by focusing on project stages, while
Mahmoud et al. (2020) identified KPIs indicating safety performance in the construction industry.
Madushika et al. (2020) listed suitable KPIs for value management according to value management
techniques. Similarly, Lin et al. (2011) explored KPIs of value management and divided them into
three groups such as predicting indicators, process performance indicators, and outcome
performance indicators.
The purpose of this study is to explore KPIs used in the construction industry to measure the
performance of construction projects. To achieve this purpose, Scopus database was utilized to
show trends in KPIs adopted in the construction industry. The reviewed papers were investigated
based on journal name, publication year, adopted KPIs, and main categories of KPIs. In addition,
the interactions of the most widely used KPIs with each other were discussed.

2 METHODOLOGY
The search engine Scopus was used to achieve the study objective and 190 articles were identified
using the following search code: TITLE-ABS-KEY ("kpi*" OR "key performance indicator*")
AND TITLE-ABS-KEY ("construction"), and additional filtering (only research articles and only
English-written articles). After a detailed review of each article’s title, keywords, and abstract, 55
relevant articles were determined. The selected 55 research papers were investigated on a full-
paper basis and 21 articles suitable to this research were found for further analysis. The flowchart
of the research steps adopted in this study is illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Research flowchart.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The articles identified through literature review were analyzed based on the adopted KPIs, main
categories of these KPIs, year of the publications and journal names. This study identified main
categories that grouped different KPIs for assessing the selected articles related to construction
projects (Figure 2). The list of project KPIs of the studies is given in Table 1. The findings indicate
that cost performance and schedule/time performance were the most widely used indicators with
15 publications, followed by quality/high quality performance and client satisfaction with 12
publications. It is noteworthy that the 15 publications that adopted the cost performance indicator
also considered the schedule/time performance indicator since these indicators could be considered

CON-12-2 © 2022 ISEC Press

 Proceedings of International Structural Engineering and Construction, 9(2), 2022
Achieving Technical Excellence with Data Analytics in Materials, Structural Engineering and Construction

in parallel for performance measurement (Cox et al. 2003). The KPIs developed are mostly based
on time, cost and quality indicators (Tuffaha et al. 2020), therefore, they can be regarded as the
main performance indicators of projects. Additionally, other KPIs such as staff turnover, rework,
and inefficient project planning can directly or indirectly increase overall project cost (Cox et al.
2003). On the other hand, the satisfaction of the project stakeholders, especially the client
satisfaction, which is one of the significant critical success factors (He et al. 2021), should also be
considered as another important indicator. Among those KPIs presented in Table 1, communication
efficiency and open communication play a crucial role in sustaining project success (Forcada et al.
2017); thus, increasing the effectiveness of communication could greatly reduce the occurrence of
claim, dispute and litigation (Yeung et al. 2007).

Figure 2. Categorizing KPIs in selected articles.

Figure 3. Distribution of selected articles based on publication year.

CON-12-3 © 2022 ISEC Press

Vimonsatit, S., Askarinejad, H., Singh, A., and Yazdani, S. (eds.)

Table 1. Numeric distribution of KPIs in the selected articles related to construction project.

Categories KPIs Number of

studies
Cost performance 15
Cost predictability 4
Indicators related to cost Project cost growth 3
Change cost factor 2
Project budget factor 2
Schedule/time performance 15
Indicators related to
Time predictability 4
time/schedule
Project schedule growth 1
Quality/high quality performance 12
Indicators related to quality Rework 10
Defects and quality errors 6
Client satisfaction 12
User satisfaction 4
Indicators related to satisfaction
Project team satisfaction 3
Contractor satisfaction 1
Safety performance/accident rate 11
Indicators related to safety
Lost time rate 1
Efficiency quality management system 2
Effective risk management 1
Indicators related to
Effectiveness of material management and resource 1
management areas
management
Management of internal and external stakeholders 1
Communication efficiency / effective information 11
Indicators related to management
relationships Harmonious working relationships 2
Long-term business relationships 2
Claim occurrence 3
Indicators related to obstacles Dispute occurrence 2
Litigation occurrence 2
Productivity performance 9
Innovation and improvement 5
Profitability and financial objectives 5
Effective of planning 3
Other indicators Top management support 3
Environmental performance 2
Attitude of employees 2
Professional image establishment 2
Staff turnover 1

The distribution of the 21 articles published between 2003 and 2022 is shown in Figure 3, and
the highest number of publications was reached in 2020. Table 2 presents top five journals that
published the included articles. Accordingly, the results show that about 72% of the articles
published in five of the journals as Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management (4
studies), Construction Management and Economics (3 studies), Journal of Construction
Engineering and Management (3 studies), Journal of Management in Engineering (3 studies) and
International Journal of Construction Management (2 studies).

CON-12-4 © 2022 ISEC Press

 Proceedings of International Structural Engineering and Construction, 9(2), 2022
Achieving Technical Excellence with Data Analytics in Materials, Structural Engineering and Construction

Table 2. Top five journals about the subject.

Journals Number of studies

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management 4
Construction Management and Economics 3
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management 3
Journal of Management in Engineering 3
International Journal of Construction Management 2

4 CONCLUSION
KPIs of construction projects are essential for more effective performance and productivity
measurement. This study is an attempt to figure out the trend of KPIs in terms of effectiveness,
efficiency, and quality to monitor, measure and evaluate the performance of construction projects.
The findings highlight that cost and time related KPIs were generally more relevant indicators in
the pertinent literature. In addition, KPIs of construction projects such as risk management,
resource management, staff turnover and working relationships can be considered by researchers
as they can affect other indicators. Identified KPIs adopted in the existing construction project
management literature is expected to contribute to the enhancement of project performance, which
can be used by researchers and practitioners in the construction industry.

References
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Procedia Engineering, 196, 68–75, 2017.
Cox, R. F., Issa, R. R. A., and Ahrens, D., Management’s Perception of Key Performance Indicators for
Construction, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 129(2), 142–151, 2003.
Dawood, N., Development of 4D-Based Performance Indicators in Construction Industry, Engineering,
Construction and Architectural Management, 17(2), 210–230, 2010.
Dawood, N., and Sikka, S., Development of 4D Based Performance Indicators in Construction Industry,
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 Vimonsatit, S., Askarinejad, H., Singh, A., and Yazdani, S. (eds.)

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