Construction project performance metrics: conceptualization, measurement and application in metro rail

Construction is an important industry in Iran and India. There are very few researchers that studied in the area of construction management as far as metro rail construction is concerned. The focused research on this sector in Iran and India would help in understanding the causes of slow improvement in performance. This study is an exploratory work in Islamic Republic of Iran and Republic of India that attempts to identify and evaluate the success factors and performance indicators in this sector. That would form a guideline for further studies, and it will help professionals to understand some important factors which impact metro construction project performance and also provide them a tool to evaluate the performance of the projects with the focus on such factors. The success factors are identified and classified based on literature survey. The factors are classified into four groups namely; project participant related factors, organizational tactics and strategies, environmental factors, and project characteristic factors. The questionnaire survey is adopted to collect the data for this research. This research tried to look into objectives. The first objective is to identify the important factors influencing project performance and their relative importance. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) followed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) is conducted on the data. The result shows project manager leadership is the most important factor under project participants group in Iran and India. In case of organizational tactics and strategies group, the most important factor is conducting safety program in metro construction in Iran and project mission in case of India. Similarly, accessibility of transportation is the important success factor in metro construction in Iran while political and economic situation is the most important factor in India. Finally, under the project characteristic group, the most important factor in Iran and India are nature of project and urgency of project respectively. The second objective of the research is to identify the indicators for metro rail project performance in Iran and India. The CFA, Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) are applied in to fulfill this objective. The result of the analysis reveals the performance indicators and their relative importance for each country. Further analysis shows the safety performance is not significantly related to overall performance in both countries. vii | P a g e The third objective of the research is to find out the enablers and inhibitors of the metro rail construction projects in Iran and India. These variables are identified by open ended questionnaire and analyzed through ISM technique. This analysis clearly shows the enabler and inhibitors specifically related to local industry in each country and their driving and dependency powers. Finally, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been applied to address the last objective of the research. The fourth objective is to develop a Project Performance Index (PPI) to evaluate the performance level of the construction project. The findings of the research will help the project managers and other decision makers in construction industry in Iran and India to assist in enhancing the metro construction performance in a most effective and efficient way.