Projects & Construction

Measuring value based judgement to predict performance and risk

The Judgement Index has been used to identify high performers in initiatives and studies for the Major Project Association, and leading private sector companies in the field of project management services, such as AWE, Shepherd Construction, AMEC and also in a review of the qualities of award nominees for the Athena Project Services sponsored Project Planners awards ceremony held in 2012. The Judgement Index is also approved and recommended by the ECITB (Engineering Construction Industry Training Board). There has also been a great deal of ongoing work and research conducted in the USA through a number of academic and trade institutes that relate directly to projects and construction.

Project planners, leaders and managers – are they different?

Over the past 4 years work and research has been in progress to determine the value based judgements of those who work within the project field.  This has included identifying common traits within high performers and mapping specific judgement indicators against the capability frameworks produced by the Engineering Project Academy at Leeds University. The results have given a unique insight to specific qualities that high performing project personnel possess.  Not only will this facilitate the ability to predict performance but it will also highlight areas for development in a very precise way, which makes the material an essential part of the development toolkit for any organisation involved with projects.  Not surprisingly the profile and capability framework for different roles will be subtly different within the sector.

Capability frameworks

A capability framework identifies the finite detail of those key behavioural qualities required to perform within a specific role.  If we take ‘Team and Collaborative Working’ as an example and then break that down into different human factors that make up the capability, we could find indicators that stretch beyond the typical ‘People Skill’ evaluation areas.  These could include factors such as energy to deal with difficult situations, work ethic etc.

Having the means to identify and measure the key components that impact on a capability we then have a great opportunity to improve an individual or a team’s performance by having a clear vision of appropriate intervention.  In addition we can review risk, team cohesion as well as calculating the risk in recruiting specific individuals.

Benefits to project personnel