Construction portfolio management model for institutions

Owners and agencies that build or renovate projects have a need to know how their portfolio of construction projects is performing and how to optimize future projects. However, owners are challenged with spending the time to collect and analyze the data on their history of projects, while also managing the workload of their current projects. Without historical data, owners face the difficult task of understanding what areas need improvements and how to optimize performance. Institutions, such as universities and colleges, are uniquely challenged as their portfolio of projects consists of varying project sizes, complexities, and occupants. Further, many institutions are faced with these obstacles amid budget cuts and departmental re-organizations. A model for construction portfolio management for institutions is developed and currently being tested on three institutions in the USA at different levels of maturity. Through a series of audits, interviews, and data collection from both owners and contractors across a period of 4 years and 26 institutions, the researchers developed the model. The model is a three-stage approach, with a structure for identifying the current state of performance, a framework for the ongoing collection of data as new projects arise, and linking decision-making indicators to improve overall performance. The model, results, and lessons learned from the institutions are presented to serve as examples for institutions looking to understand and improve the performance of their construction portfolio. This research can also be extended to owners outside of institutions and serve as valuable insights to contractors looking to measure their performance.