Project-Level Measures

The CSS principles mentioned earlier, after all, have their roots in the delivery of individual projects. Furthermore, measurement can initially be piloted on a small subset of projects. Project-level measures provide valuable feedback to stakeholders and project team members.

This is a starting point for developing measurement techniques to assess how well individual projects reflect CSS principles. As agencies become comfortable with CSS measurement and implement CSS more widely, cumulative analysis of results from many individual projects can provide helpful insight on organizationwide performance. Areas of focus are described where measurement is both desirable and feasible, and some suggestions for specific measures are provided. Some measures may work on all projects, others may be adapted depending on the project under review, and some may only apply to a few projects.

Process and outcome measurement focus areas are discussed in this section. (See section two for an introduction to the difference between process and outcome measure categories.) For each category, core focus areas are described where the potential value of measurement is high and ways to measure are discussed. Agencies may wish to concentrate on some or all focus areas and are strongly encouraged to tailor individual measures to their needs.

Many measures discussed in this section address qualitative issues, such as satisfaction levels among team members and stakeholders on various CSSrelated attributes of the project development process. Most can easily be measured using simple survey techniques. In many instances, qualitative issues can be summarized by asking survey respondents to describe their opinions in yes/no answers, or on a sliding scale (e.g. one to five, or good to bad) The key to ensuring that measure results provide value is to ensure that measures are implemented in a collaborative environment where a full range of perspectives among the project team including its stakeholders is heard.

Project-Level Measures: Key Characteristics
- Used to assess performance of individual projects
- Address both processes and outcomes
- Work for one or many projects
- Rely on collaborative, selfassessment by project team and stakeholders
- Vital resource for project leaders/teams
- Process measures applicable at key project milestones
- Outcome measures appropriate at project.