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This paper aims to examine briefing practices and whether these are related to the quality of brief documents and client satisfaction in constructed health-care facilities in South Africa. The rational for the examination stems from the view held by scholars that the briefing process is critical to the success of projects, as well as client/user satisfaction in the constructed facility, and also because of undocumented reports of client/end-user dissatisfaction in constructed health-care facilities in South Africa.

The research process consisted of a literature review to identify existing briefing framework and practices in use applicable to facilities. This was supported by an exploratory case study of a recently completed public hospital in East London, South Africa. Data collection for the study was undertaken by means of conducting semi-structured interviews with two groups consisting of client representatives and the technical design team on the project.

The research established that in the context of this case study, inadequate client consultation took place, not all design consultants were adequately involved in the development of the project brief, limited use was made of a specific briefing framework in developing the project brief and that despite these shortcomings in the briefing process followed, a comprehensive good quality briefing document was produced and the client was satisfied with the health-care facility constructed.

The results of this study are generalizable with health-care facilities only. As such, research inferences and projections can only be made within this set and may not necessarily be applicable to the wider construction sector or to all projects within this sector.

The implications of this research are applicable to constructed health-care facilities. Practical inferences include the need to acknowledge that there is a need for a briefing framework, which should outline the involvement of all design consultants and client representatives when developing the project briefs for health-care facilities. The briefing framework is proposed for use in addressing the shortcomings in the briefing processes and practices and will also help the client in the choice of a brief process and practice which will comprehensively capture their requirements, give clear directives/information to the design consultants and will result in higher levels of end-user/patient satisfaction in the constructed health-care facility.

Clients and allied professionals in charge of health-care facilities’ construction are encouraged to consider the implementation of a standard framework for use in the briefing process. This reflection should encourage engagement through formative legislative provision and transparent awareness campaigns.

This work is original insofar, as it directly addresses the alignment of briefing practices to quality of brief documents and client satisfaction in constructed health-care facilities within the context of the South African construction industry. However, similar exercises have been undertaken on briefing practices in the wider construction sector.

Over the past 10 years, client briefing or facility programming of building projects, has received a great deal of attention from researchers and practitioners. Despite these efforts, tangible improvements to client briefing remain elusive. More testing and evaluation still needs to be carried out before we can judge whether or not any progress has been made. The primary aim of this paper is to present the present authors' experience of testing three potential client briefing techniques in a study conducted within the design studio of a university school of architecture and building. The authors also place the client briefing problem into context by first analysing types of problem, the client briefing problem itself, potential problem‐solving techniques and the three techniques selected for this trial. The current paper presents the results of a survey of student architect opinions about the processes and techniques that were trialed. It was found that more empirical research is needed with these and other techniques in the client briefing environment because no single technique is likely to provide the best solution in every situation. However, whichever technique is adopted, it seems advisable to identify the client's strategic objectives clearly so that the design team can begin its work on a firm foundation. Resistance within the design studio culture towards potential application of analytical techniques is also discussed.

An effective client briefing process and the selection of an appropriate building procurement system both contribute to the attainment of client objectives with respect to time, cost and quality for construction projects. The present paper documents the results of an empirical study into the nature and effectiveness of the project briefing process, and the selection and effectiveness of procurement methods in the attainment of client objectives. A national questionnaire survey was administered to clients, architects, quantity surveyors, engineers, project managers and general contractors in South Africa. The results show that room for improvement exists in the manner in which project briefing is conducted and the manner in which procurement methods are selected.

This paper aims to investigate briefing in the construction industry in Hong Kong. Specifically, it sets out to discover the current practices on briefing in the industry and the limitations of these practices.

This study consists of a literature review and a pilot study, structured focus group interviews and semi‐structured interviews.

The study has revealed that current practices, although have been in operation for a long time, have a number of limitations such as lacking in a comprehensive framework; lacking in identification of client requirements; lacking in contributions from clients; lacking in involvement of stakeholders; and inadequate time spent on the briefing. It is concluded that these limitations must be properly addressed by the industry in order to improve the briefing and to avoid subsequent problems in the design and construction phases, and that more resources should be allocated.

So far, little work has been undertaken to study the practice of briefing in sufficient depth in the construction industry in Hong Kong. This paper improves our comprehension of the nature of client requirements and provides valuable insights into the details of briefing in the public and private sectors of the local industry.

The aim of the paper is to investigate the architectural firm's role in the briefing process on international projects and to identify the strategies of successful firms to overcome barriers.

A model is developed based on a critique of briefing models and international design management theory. The development of a reflexive capability model borrows cultural theory concepts of capital and reflexivity. The model is based on maximizing reflexive capability through the management of social, cultural and intellectual capital. Two case studies of architectural firms identify barriers during the briefing process and strategies to overcome these barriers. Data collection involved 16 interviews with senior management and design team staff.

There are various barriers and strategies used to achieve success in the briefing process. However, the management of a firm's capital is key to successful briefing on international projects and is a characteristic of reflexive practice. Reflexivity is based in a positive interpretation of change, and a continual responsiveness to change by participants in a system. The study provides useful information on management of the design and briefing stages of international projects.

The study is limited by the number of case studies used and the difficulty of generalisability of findings.

The research is that it provides useful information about how to approach constant change during briefing for the architects and clients who work on international projects.

The model is original and has value as it assists in explaining why some firms are more successful than others. The case studies provide new knowledge on international projects and the briefing process. The value of the paper is for the academic community, professionals in the built environment and clients involved in international projects.

The focus of this work is on the client-designer interface where decisions have significant impact over the lifecycle of the project. Therefore, the briefing stage is examined in the context of clients’ needs which is divided into project-based strategy and broader clients’ strategy. The purpose of this paper is to address the pitfalls in the briefing process which has been attributed to the shortcomings in the client-designer communication interfaces. This will be achieved by developing an automated brief generation framework. The research examines the efficiency of standard approaches to modelling and design, and the benefits that these methodologies have offered to the computer industry. The work reviews the similarities between the two industries and argues in support of the potential benefits in adopting a standard methodology in the construction industry. The structure upon which the framework is developed is based on system analysis and design methodology (SSADM) which has proven to be an effective platform used within the software development industry.

SSADM is an established methodology within the software development industry. The paper will demonstrate that due to fundamental similarities between the construction and software development industries, SSADM is likely to offer a viable platform upon which an automated enhanced brief generation model is developed for use in the construction industry. The construction design and construction process will be mapped on SSADM high-level definition before focusing and honing on the design phase. The methodology for the development of the framework will be based on the rationalist approach of generating knowledge through reasoning leading to model-building.

A model that is based on SSADM is proposed for the design development phase of construction projects. In order to shape the project strategy, the model considers the combined role of clients’ requirements with organisation strategy and environmental factors. The paper has shown that it is feasible to increase the automation of the briefing process and enhanced the briefing output. The model here does not diminish the importance of direct communication between the client and the design team. It provides a more structured way of doing so, while taking advantage of vast array of data and technology in order to improve the brief outcome.

From practical perspective, the proposed framework is in its formative stage, thus requiring incremental refinement through several case studies. This is particularly true about the AI components of the system which typically rely on extensive data representing the real-case scenarios. Therefore, the work invites further research into the examination of various parts as well as the overall system.

There are several ways by which construction projects are procured. There may be fluctuation in their rate of usage, but while there is no indication of any procurement option fading, new ones such as PPP and PFI are periodically introduced. The existence of this diversity is indicative of the fact that the industry tends to respond to problems rather than attempting to instigate a measured solution supported by theoretical underpinning. Subsequently, there have been suggestions of a communication and information discourse between actors and within processes involved in project lifecycle. This project is aimed at addressing the gap in the client-designer communication. The automated approach to brief generation will lead to better briefs while reducing ambiguities as well as the overhead associated with brief generation.

The quality of project brief has a significant impact on decisions at the design stage. In turn, these decisions will influence all phases of construction project lifecycle. The briefing session and requirement analysis of a construction project can be very difficult for inexperienced clients particularly for complex projects. Therefore, there is potential for the process of client-requirement-analysis to be optimised. The work promises to improve the quality of the briefing process, thus helping clients to realise their intended objectives and minimise resource waste.

The work builds on the commonalities of the construction and software development industries and takes advantage of the advancements in the latter. In doing so, project quality is defined quantitatively which is used to develop project strategy in a three-dimensional space. The development of the model was also contingent upon enhancement of artificial neural network structure.

To describe a research project which seeks to establish a value management framework for project briefing to systematically identify and clarify client requirements, and represent these requirements precisely and explicitly to facilitate the design process.

Two research instruments are used: structured questionnaire survey to validate the theoretical framework established; and experiments to test the proposed value management framework with real‐life projects, supported by case studies.

The primary research findings of this project are the identification of 13 variables that have an impact on the briefing process, which form the basis of the theoretical framework. It is revealed that the theoretical foundation of the research supports the use of value management to the briefing process. Further validation will be completed by conducting questionnaire survey and real‐life case studies.

This paper improves comprehension of the nature, characteristics and problems of the briefing process. It also introduces the theoretical foundation of the research project and describes the process for the development of the value management framework for project briefing.

To identify the management tools and variables that impact briefing, assess the nature of current briefing practices, review the need for more structured techniques and determine the place of facilities management in briefing.

A detailed literature review to analyse and critique the briefing process was followed by a brainstorming session to explore relevant technical frameworks. A questionnaire survey investigated opinions of structured approaches to briefing.

The facilities manager operating within the strategic framework of the client organisation and having the necessary skills is a natural choice as brief writer. Facilities managers’ involvement is not strongly reflected in this research, indicating perhaps that they do not consider briefing a natural role or that they do not possess the skills for its undertaking. It is concluded that while briefing remains an unstructured investigative process, the skills for which are learned through experience, then architects and project managers will continue to dominate the activity.

Currently, briefing is unstructured, iterative, and uses a variety of media for its exposition. More formalised processes recognising strategic and project briefing are advocated in the literature. Options for improvement include a structured approach to investigative briefing and facilitated value management.

The limited involvement of facilities managers in briefing prompted this research. This paper identifies the structure and variables impacting the briefing process and concludes with options for formalised approaches to briefing.

The paper seeks to suggest methods that will enable innovative and effective communication and collaboration between clients and construction project management professionals.

The methodology involves workshops with construction clients documented in working documents circulated to participants.

Workshops revealed trends that urge a re‐evaluation of the briefing process. The need for better briefing with the focus on end‐users is increasing. The findings also pointed to difficulties for construction projects to deliver what the user‐clients need. There was considered to be a lack of systems and methods to keep track of user client demands sufficiently and in a satisfactory way. Goals need to be iterated and validated on a regular and coherent basis throughout projects. An increased interest for process‐oriented and strategic briefing was indicated.

Further studies are required to develop a client/user driven construction process that is more than just new statements. Research needs to address not only issues in the business as such, but also what requirements should be put on the education and training of stakeholders who are active in the construction sector.

The paper presents a challenge to the traditional role of several actors; there is a need to communicate core business needs to construction prerequisites in a reciprocal way. There is a need of choosing logic – however, this does not diminish the need for methodologies for capturing, processing and verifying requirements in the process of provision of facilities to a user.

The paper proposes the idea that different logics govern actions by construction industry stakeholders, an issue the construction sector needs to address.

Confining the development of the project brief to a certain stage hinders the interaction between the client and the designer. In addition, it inhibits the incorporation of the influential internal and external factors that may affect the project. In spite of the frequently adverse impact of change orders on project cost, time and quality, literature review and case studies showed that client organisations continue to use change orders to achieve their expectations and enhance their projects' performance principally because current construction management process instills an expectation that, change after a specified point is somehow outside the project brief rather than part of the ongoing development of that brief. This paper introduces the concept of dynamic brief development (DBD), a process that facilitates client satisfaction, meets the need to adapt to the brief developing factors for the benefit of the project and fulfils the desire to manage project change orders. In this paper, the need, aims and principles of the concept of DBD are explained and the factors driving brief development are identified. In addition, the rationale behind each factor is given and the case study sampling method is described.