CII Benchmarking Code of Conduct

A. Preamble

Benchmarking is a systematic process of measuring one’s performance against recognized leaders for the purpose of determining best practices that lead to superior performance when adopted and utilized. It is a part of our industry’s continuous improvement process and involves the indirect transfer of ideas from the “best-in-class” organizations to those seeking to improve.

To guide its activities and the activities of other participants in the CII Benchmarking & Metrics Program, promote acceptance, and enhance the professionalism and overall effectiveness of the program, the Benchmarking and Metrics Committee has established this Code of Conduct. Compliance with this code is a requirement for participation in the CII Benchmarking and Metrics Program.

B. Activities of the Benchmarking & Metrics Committee and the CII Staff Members Who Support Its Activities

The activities of the members of the Benchmarking & Metrics Committee and the CII staff who support the Committee’s activities will be governed by the following principles:

1. Benchmarking interchange will be treated as confidential to the individuals and organizations involved. Confidential individual company data will not be communicated to any other organization without the consent of the company submitting the data. Only aggregated data will be published or disclosed in a public forum. Rules for aggregating data to protect individual company confidentiality shall be established by the CII Benchmarking & Metrics Committee and will be strictly followed. CII staff and any third party researchers will be required to execute confidentiality agreements prior to accessing CII confidential benchmarking data.

2. In the context of CII benchmarking, no attempt will be made to gain confidential information from any organization that is not related to the activities of the Committee.

3. Data submitted to CII for benchmarking purposes will be used to establish performance and practice use norms and to establish the value of best practices. Data may also be used to support research and implementation initiatives with the goal of improving project performance.

4. Contacts made to organizations participating in the CII Benchmarking Program will be made through the designated Benchmarking Associate, provided that one has been designated. Mutual agreement will be established with the Benchmarking Associate before seeking benchmarking data from other parties within an organization.

Permission of a third party will be obtained before providing his/her name in response to a contact request. For designated “expert users,” prior permission is assumed.

C. Activities of Companies Participating in the CII Benchmarking & Metrics Program

1. Discussions or actions that might lead to or imply an interest in restraint of trade, market customer allocation schemes, dealing arrangements, bid rigging, bribery, or misappropriation will be avoided.

2. A competitor or potential competitor will not be contacted to obtain price or sales-related data.

3. Since member companies gain by sharing data (with due respect to confidentiality concerns), participants agree to input complete and accurate data on a representative sample of projects, and may expect access to similar data from member companies after aggregation of the information to protect participant confidentiality.

4. No effort will be made to seek confidential information on other companies through CII staff or Committee members.

5. Commitment to the efficiency, effectiveness, and accuracy of the benchmarking process will be demonstrated through annual attendance at Benchmarking Associate training and through thorough review/validation of data prior to submission to CII. Participants will also commit to providing questionnaires that are as complete as possible.