Performance measurement in the built environment

Abstract

The very purpose of management is to achieve desired goals. Management ensures that planes fly, the sick are healed, or peace is maintained. Management in the built environment ensures that the built environment fits with user requirements, during operation and (re-)development. Management needs feedback on whether its area of attention is moving in the right direction and the desired goals are reached. Performance measurement provides that feedback.
Performance, as used in this textbook, is the extent to which the current state of a focus area corresponds to its desired state. The concept is very familiar to all of us: we check performance naturally and frequently throughout the day as we examine whether our actions have produced the desired results and use this information to plan new actions. For example, when preparing a meal, we frequently check that the vegetables are cooking according to the recipe (performance measurement) and appropriately adjust the heat of the oven (performance management). This textbook focuses on the technique of performance measurement, with occasional references to what management can do with the results of performance measurement.