The Blueprint: A Process for Measuring Project Quality

The following is a “why to/how to” manual explaining research performed by the CII Quality Performance Measurements Research Team. The intent of this manual is to introduce a systematic approach for measuring quality in projects and facilitating its immediate implementation. It is an approach that can be quickly integrated into any project management system. It considers that personnel from more than one company work on projects and that the work force changes as the project progresses.

The contents of this manual include a brief background of CII research in the area of quality, including a summary of the research team’s objectives, approach and results. Also included are an overview of fundamental quality principles and a new way of looking at projects consistent with these principles. Lastly, an explanation of the team’s product, “The Blueprint,” with a walk-thru and actual best practice examples, is presented. In order to facilitate implementation, this manual includes blank forms to help project teams get started in using The Blueprint.

In phase one of its research, the Quality Performance Measurement Research Team investigated current best practices being used to measure project quality in the engineer-procure-construct (EPC) process. The research involved a comprehensive literature search, the development of a questionnaire, and follow-up interviews with both owner and contractor companies. The results of phase one are summarized in CII Source Document 79, “Quality Performance Measurements of the EPC Process: Current Practices.”

In phase two, the research team developed “The Blueprint” to measure quality in projects. This tool was validated by piloting the application on three projects and by conducting a series of focused meetings with project leadership teams to assess their opinions on the applicability of and benefits expected from The Blueprint process. The results of phase two are reported in CII Source Document 103, “Quality Performance Measurements of the EPC Process: The Blueprint.”

The entire research effort of the team is summarized in CII Publication 36-1, Measuring Quality Performance on EPC Projects.

All companies employ traditional hard measures such as cost and schedule for determining performance on projects. Leading companies include additional soft measures such as customer satisfaction and teamwork in evaluating project success. A key feature of The Blueprint is how it helps a project team to focus on predicting both hard and soft measures. This allows the project team to take corrective action during the project as opposed to providing only after the fact information. The Blueprint also acts as a communication tool that can be employed by all project participants, and creates a solid foundation for teamwork to flourish.