Based on the principle of drillability，the concept，significance and key issues of boreability of strata by shield construction are combed. The displacement method，the strength method and the energy method are put forward to express the boreability，and the representative indexes of three methods are preliminarily selected as: penetration，field penetration index and specific energy. Combined with a shield tunnel project，the time history analysis on the change rule of construction parameters and boreability index of shield tunneling is carried out，and four main working stages of tunneling are put forward. Based on the different working stages of single ring driving，statistical data of three kinds of stratum and the results of relevant literature，the correlation between the boreability indexes is analyzed. There is a good unity among penetration，field penetration index and specific energy，which can be used to express the boreability of the stratum. Supplemented by the special stratum in the project，the feasibility of the response feedback between boreability and shield machine-geotechnical state is analyzed. At last，the study on the problem of boreability is considered. It is suggested that the study on the classification of strata should focus on the statistical work between the main physical mechanical parameters and the boreability index of the geotechnical，and accelerate the development of traditional geological exploration to drilling methods based boreability.