Measuring the eect of project management on construction outputs: a new approach

The precise nature of the in ̄uence that project management has upon building project performance in terms of time, cost and quality outputs is not well de®ned. In this paper we present a new approach to the measurement of the e€ect of Building Project Management (BPM) on these key outputs using 15 `cases' derived from UK data. Within the UK construction industry there is doubt as to the added value of BPM. We argue that it is essential that an objective analysis of the value added potential of BPM is undertaken with a view to demonstrating whether BPM in the UK does or does not improve the eciency of the construction process and thereby add value to the output. The modelling strategy adopted attempts to achieve this. The evaluation undertaken in this paper demonstrates that BPM as it is presently implemented in the UK fails to perform as expected in relation to the three predominant performance evaluation criteria; time, cost and quality. If these criteria are considered to be joint products, the results presented suggest that BPM does not represent added value for UK construction clients. 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved.