In particular, the latter of the two has been the prime performance assessment (in
terms of success or failure) of construction projects. Ward et al (1991) describe how
when assessing the success/failure of construction projects “a common approach is to
evaluate performance on the extent to which client objectives like cost, time and
quality were achieved”. Indeed, those are seen as the ‘three traditional indicators of
performance’ (Mohsini & Davidson 1992) used in the UK construction industry.
Although the ‘three measures’ provide an indication as to the success or failure of a
project they do not, in isolation, provide a balanced view of the project’s performance.
Furthermore, their implementation in construction projects is usually apparent at the
end of the project, and therefore they can be classified as ‘lagging’ rather than
‘leading’ indicators of performance. Ward et al (1991) also suggest that “Looking
back on the conduct of a project, what sticks in the mind is often not so much
financial success or early completion, but memories of other people involved and
abiding impressions of harmony, goodwill and trust or, conversely, of arguments,
distrust and conflict. The client’s willingness to pursue a given procurement route to
achieve a future project is likely to be strongly influenced by these factors.”
Therefore, it is clear to see that the traditional measures of the performance of
construction projects are not enough to assess their ‘true’ performance. It can be
argued that the methods used to measure performance in construction projects fall into
the three main categories of the BSC: