The performance of any collaboration project must be evaluated in two ways. Evaluating the performance of the collaboration model itself provides the opportunity verify if the method of governance was conducive to a spirit of collaboration and of trust resulting in turn in a feeling of satisfaction among all partners. Evaluating the performance of the service delivery focuses attention on the outcomes of the service program itself.

The collaboration model will be deemed effective if it meets the expectations of all the partners and of the citizen-clients. The following criteria or performance indicators need to be taken into consideration in order to perform this evaluation:

• compliance with government interests
• achievement of initial objectives of each partner achievement of project objectives in terms of costs, deadlines, and quality of service
• equitable division of risks, benefits and resources
• respect of agreements among partners
• relationship of trust and reciprocity
• added value created for the partners
• partners' overall satisfaction

In terms of service delivery, clients and partners consider some criteria to be particularly significant:

• quality of service, reliability, responsiveness, appearance, cleanliness, comfort, friendliness, communication, courtesy, competence, accessibility, availability, speed and safety
• service costs flexibility in terms of volume, speed, specifications and evolution capacity
• efficient use of resources and productivity
• innovation
• respect for public interest in terms of democracy, equity, accountability, transparency and accessibility
• global satisfaction of service providers

These various indicators allow for the assessment of collaboration project results in terms of achieving objectives as well as the satisfaction of each partner involved in the process.

Clearly, the factors listed herein under the five first dimensions of the conceptual model are not all equally important. Some context-dependant factors either encourage or repress the use of collaboration and help define, at least in part, the adopted mode of collaboration. Other factors, including those presented together in the 3rd, 4th and 5th dimensions directly impact the success of the collaboration project and the satisfaction of public and private partners as well as the satisfaction of citizen-clients, users or payers. We trust that this research project will help identify the critical success factors common to all methods of collaboration and as well as those that are specific to particular methods.