Establishment of Quantitative Measures for Team Integration Assessment in Alliance Projects

Abstract

The ability to sustain and consistently drive integration practice is vital for alliance teams as it promotes a collaborative culture and the continuity of equitable relationships to improve project performance. An alliance team integration performance index (ATIPI) has been previously developed based on seven weighted key indicators for alliance projects as follows: team leadership; trust and respect; a single team focus on project objectives and key results areas; collective understanding; commitment from project alliance board; creation of single and collocated alliance team; and free-flow communication. The ATIPI provides a point of reference for alliance teams to monitor, measure, and improve the performance of their integration practice. Given that the ATIPI is still at a conceptual stage, an appropriate measure, preferably objective, needs to be established. Consequently, the main objective of this paper is to identify quantitative measures for each key indicator to provide an objective assessment based on quantitative evidence. Initially, structured face-to-face interviews with five alliance practitioners were conducted to recommend the appropriate quantitative measures. Then, two successive rounds of a Delphi questionnaire survey with 17 experts were conducted to rate the measures recommended by the initial group of five interviewees. Finally, a set of quantitative measures was recommended based on their levels of importance, measurability, and obtainability, to assess each of the seven weighted key indicators. The identified quantitative measures provide an enhancement to the existing ATIPI model in terms of the objective quantification of the key indicators. This will also help fill a knowledge gap by strengthening researchers’ and academics’ understanding and existing knowledge on measuring team integration.