Applying a new concept for strategic performance indicators

Performance measurement provides critical information for strategic decision-making about the future of national infrastructure provision. The process of developing appropriate performance indicators must be based on an understanding of the high-level desired outcomes that infrastructure systems are intended to facilitate. These outcomes may be complex and dynamic and vary across the spectrum of infrastructure stakeholders. This paper demonstrates a conceptual process for developing outcome-related performance indicators by using case studies from the UK rail and water sectors. The case studies show that the process can provide an industry-specific picture of desired outcomes across the main stakeholders, together with their dimensions and associated performance indicators (so-called partial indicators). The work highlights potential shortfalls of a sector-by-sector approach to outcome-oriented strategic performance indicators and suggests that further work is required to integrate partial indicators to provide a holistic picture that recognises the contributions often made by a variety of infrastructures to a given high-level desired outcome.