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This paper aims to provide a better understanding of how architects perceive and use briefing documents. It discusses what type of briefing information architects find relevant for their design process, and how and when briefing information should be presented. It also gives recommendations for clients and consultants that produce the brief.

The article is based on a review of briefing literature, six exploratory interviews with two clients, two architects and two consultants, 18 in‐depth interviews with Dutch architects, and a workshop with Dutch experts on briefing.

A brief (or “program of requirements”) is a crucial means of communication in the interaction between clients and architects. A good brief explains what the client needs, desires and expects from a project. This is all crucial information for the design process. In the interviews, however, many architects indicated that, in daily practice, briefing documents are not as useful as they should be. In their opinion, briefs are often too long, containing overly‐detailed specifications, that are not always clear, consistent or complete.

In addition to the analysis of architects' complaints, six recommendations are given with respect to the briefing process, the contents and structure of the brief, and the status of the brief.

Most publications on briefing focus on the client and brief writing at the start of a project. The present paper discusses the opinions and experiences of the architect and the use of the brief in the design process.

The BDC has implemented several team briefing schemes into various NHS organisations over the last seven years. Evaluation over the last three years has highlighted several problems with the team briefing system. The article explores these and suggests ways of overcoming the problems with clear, definable actions. It highlights that the basic team briefing model is sound but that organisations need to consider their commitment and whether the culture is compatible or not with some reinforcement of certain processes which includes training team briefers and having effective feedback as part of the process. The article concludes that team briefing is a useful tool, which can help organisations communicate effectively with their employees.

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.

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.

Briefing in a project delivery context is one of the most critical factors in the project success. It defines client requirements, translates these needs into design criteria and generates a design concept. A lack of briefing clarity is one of the main causes of design changes and may lead to project cost and time overruns. This research aims to assess the brief clarity and its influence on project cost and duration.

This research created the PDRI-SD technique by utilising a system dynamic (SD) approach and project definition rating index (PDRI) tool to model the complex system of project briefing and associated variables. Stock and flow diagrams of the main subsystems including the briefing, the detailed design and the construction process, were developed to assess the influence of brief clarity on project cost and time. The PDRI was adopted to measure the briefing clarity and apply in the model. PDRI-SD was then tested in Australian building refurbishment projects to assess the model's effectiveness.

The simulation results indicated that a minor reduction of the lack of clarity throughout the initial briefing process could significantly mitigate unpredicted delay and cost overruns during the detailed design and the construction stage.

This research contributed to the existing body of knowledge by developing an effective technique to measure the impact of lack of brief clarity on project cost and time performance. PDRI-SD can also aid project clients to predict the influence of the initial defined brief on the detailed design and construction process using the historical data of similar previous projects. It provides clients with feedback, indicating whether the brief meets project requirements or whether parts of the project brief require more clarification/rectification before the project handover to the builders.

There is little doubt that team briefing represents an increasingly extensive technique for employee involvement in British organisations. The problems and tensions which arose in three different establishments with their systems for team briefing are presented and a number of concerns about the way in which it is practised are highlighted. It is suggested that team briefing may not be appropriate for all organisations, and that much depends on factors peculiar to the company or service in question.

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.

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 purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the variable stakeholder briefing in the successful completion of merger negotiations in the Greek banking branch.

The codification is attempted by means of software, so as to clarify the trends for negotiations in win‐win conditions. Data collected by the negotiation process of two large banking companies.

The paper concludes that an important factor for the successful outcome of a merger is also the methodology of briefing enacted by the leaders of the banking branch during both the negotiation and merger process.

The two banks follow a different briefing strategy in the issue of stakeholder briefing as well but there is congruency in briefing strategies concerning substantial goals, because both banks develop in a market that modulates tactics of consuming and investing behaviors through forming an “opinion” by the image that the banks give to consumers and investors about their plans.

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.