Purpose Present research on assessing performance of residential buildings is done for specific purposes and not holistically. The indicators, factors and attributes considered for evaluation are not consistent and are broadly based on knowledge base of the author. The purpose of this research is to identify building performance attributes based on user requirement. Design/methodology/approach With ISO 6241-1984(E) as a basis for universal acceptance, user requirements have been listed and based on these user requirements, related building performance attributes have been identified. End-user satisfaction is of primary importance to gauge performance of a facility. A quantified approach in evaluation of performance of a facility will enable a facility manager to assess the efficacy of the present policies pertaining to operation and maintenance of the facility. It will also provide valuable inputs to policy makers in initiating measures toward the goal of achieving desired user satisfaction. Performance measurement is done to measure the value created by the services, to justify the investment made in creating the facility or to determine if any additional investments are required for improvement of the facility. Findings In this literature review, an attempt is made to identify user requirements based on an internationally renowned standard ISO 6241-1984 (E), as a base and group building performance attributes on these requirements. The identified attributes are grouped into physical, environmental and external factors for ease of garnering user satisfaction and subsequent flexibility in assessment of data based on requirement of the surveys carried out for evaluation. Research limitations/implications The identified list of user requirement-related building performance attributes is limited to government residential buildings. The research needs validation through a full-fledged user satisfaction survey. Practical implications It provides a comprehensive list of attributes for assessing performance from physical, environmental and external factors, enabling wholesome assessment of the performance of buildings. Moreover, as a universally accepted document ISO 6241-1984 (E), forms the basis of the paper, its application is not limited to a region. Originality/value Lot of research is happening in the field of assessing building performance. User satisfaction by virtue of being difficult to quantify, it has not found much favor till now. This attempt is to furnish a comprehensive list of building performance attributes that will enable a multipurpose survey which will not be based on perception of the researcher but on a universally accepted document. The premise of research is that end-user satisfaction is of primary importance to gauge performance of a facility.

The feedback obtained from users/occupants would become the primary data set to evaluate performance of any built facility. Meeting user needs, expectations and aspirations are the prime objectives of a facility provider. It becomes necessary to evaluate the built facility with respect to meeting user needs/expectations, in order to obtain right feedback during building performance evaluation. Among various methods being used to obtain user feedback, questionnaire remains the foremost and most commonly used tool. The quality of feedback and its subsequent analysis entirely depend on the robustness of the questionnaire which in turn depends on its content. Such survey instrument comprises of questions framed on various attributes of a built facility. The purpose of survey dictates the nature of questions and the attributes about which the data are collected. These attributes can be categorized into functional attributes, maintenance attributes, and societal attributes.In order to obtain the right feedback in levels of satisfaction with respect to these attributes, there is a need to have appropriate descriptors for incorporation in a survey instrument. This paper identifies attributes that indicate building performance and provides simple description of these attributes based on which items can be generated for a questionnaire. Such items can enable any user/occupant to easily understand the characteristics of these attributes and offer an objective feedback during questionnaire survey.

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