An update on the Metrics Working Group

GIRI and the Chartered Quality Institute’s Construction Special Interest Group (CQI ConSIG) have joined forces to develop a practical, scalable set of standardised quality metrics that can be adopted industry wide.

Currently, the UK construction industry lacks a common framework for defining and measuring quality. This inconsistency makes it difficult to benchmark performance, share learning, and drive improvement. To address, this GIRI and CQI ConSIG formed the Metrics Working Group in January 2025 with representatives from contractors, clients, consultants, and universities.

The group’s objectives include the development of universal, cross-sector definitions for quality metrics that work for all project types; the creation of a simple toolbox that organisations of all sizes can apply easily and meaningfully; ensuring engagement from across the sector, including clients, contractors, and academia; and enabling benchmarking through consistent, comparable data to support performance improvement and reduce error.

“This isn’t about creating more KPIs,” says Thomas Churchill, CQI ConSIG secretary. “It’s about building shared definitions that give confidence in the data we already collect ‒ so we can learn, benchmark, and improve together.”

A research proposal has been developed to guide the first phase, focusing on understanding the enablers and barriers to widespread metric adoption. This has undergone a two-stage peer review by the CQI Research Advisory Panel and a call for expressions of interest was issued at the end of May to academic and industry researchers.

Next steps

In June 2025, the working group will select research partners to map current challenges and good practices in measuring construction quality, assist with understanding the barriers to adoption and opportunities for alignment, and inform the development of a practical, shared metrics framework.

This research will lay the groundwork for a robust toolbox that reflects the needs of the whole industry, from small works to major programmes.

Get involved

The Metrics Working Group welcomes engagement from clients, contractors, and professional bodies willing to support or test our approach. If you would like to get involved, please contact Thomas Churchill at thomas.churchill@bam.com.