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24,13/14
510
Received March 2006
Accepted July 2006
Abstract
Purpose 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.
Design/methodology/approach This study consists of a literature review and a pilot study,
structured focus group interviews and semi-structured interviews.
Findings 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.
Originality/value 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.
Keywords Project brief, Construction industry, Hong Kong
Paper type Research paper
Facilities
Vol. 24 No. 13/14, 2006
pp. 510-522
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-2772
DOI 10.1108/02632770610705284
Introduction
Briefing (also known as architectural programming in the USA) is the process
whereby a client clarifies and informs others of his or her needs, aspirations and
desires, formally or informally (CIB, 1997). It provides a channel to convey
decisions and information between clients and consultants. Thus, a better
understanding of their requirements and preferences at the project inception stage
can be achieved (OReilly, 1987; Fisher, 1998). Blyth and Worthington (2001)
describe briefing as a problem formulation and solving process, which identifies an
organizations needs and resources, and matches these to its objectives and
mission. It helps to balance the distinct interests of the users, client advisors, client
founders and legislators from the demand side and those of the designers,
consultants, contractors, property agents and facilities managers from the supply
side.
The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for
their financial support of the research project on which this paper is based.
Reason
Investigation of
the briefing
process
511
Table I.
Problems in briefing
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512
Background
Study
Literature Review
(2 months)
Investigation of
the briefing
process
Pilot Study
Data
Analysis
Data
Collection
513
Structured Focus
Group Interviews
Semi-Structured
Interviews
(2 months)
Data Analysis
(2 months)
Research Findings
Figure 1.
The research framework
of this study
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514
72,300 units
472 unitsa
53,000 m2
422,000 m2
684,000 m2
22,000 m2
12,000 m2
Government department
Government- related
institution
Private developer
Private developer
Private developer
Private developer
Private developer
Production
in 2001
Business nature
Brief description
Note: The annual production of HS has significantly reduced from 6,152 units to 472 units in between 1999 and 2002
Private sector
(24.9 percent)
Public sector
(75.1 percent)
16
1
1
No. of
respondents
Investigation of
the briefing
process
515
Table II.
Profile of the client
organisations that
participated in the
research
F
24,13/14
516
Moreover, it is very informal. The chairman will provide only a few verbal instructions
to the architect even though he has a full set of project requirements in his agenda.
These instructions mainly include number of buildings, size of flats, or similar
examples in the market. If the land is secured, the stage of scheme design will proceed,
and the architect will translate the project information and requirements from the
functional brief into a number of concept designs. Drawing on his/her experience,
the project manger of the client organization will choose one of the designs. The
architect will then further develop it into the scheme design, which contains a set of
sketch drawings and specifications. These documents will be submitted to the
chairman for endorsement and they become a core part of a detailed project brief.
In the public sector, the brief is normally given in a written form only. The brief
usually starts with a statement of need and is followed by the concept design and scheme
design. It is mainly undertaken by the central management unit, which specifically
manages the briefs of all of the projects in a department. Moreover, an external
consultant will be employed as a professional adviser on some occasions. For example,
the Housing Society invited a number of experts from local universities to facilitate the
briefing of a landmark project in the New Territories in 2000. A respondent from the
Housing Authority suggested that the design of public housing is governed by a set of
modular designs and internal regulations. Therefore, the briefs of public housing
projects are usually standardized, regardless of site location. As a result, some of the
project managers may simply develop a brief by modifying an old one borrowed from
similar projects and then submit it to a senior manager for approval.
Identification of client requirements
Successful briefing is about the thorough analysis of needs and rigorous evaluation of
available options (Atkin et al., 1995). Most of the respondents agreed that public clients
Table III.
Characteristics of clients
in Hong Kongs
construction industry
Size of organization
Project interest
Project continuity
Level of experience
Large
Owner-occupier
Continuing client
Very high
Large
Developer
Continuing client
Very high
Briefing guideline
Investigation of clients
Identification of requirements
Table IV.
Procedures of briefing in
Hong Kongs
construction industry
Concept design
Scheme design
Source: Latham (1994)
Strategic analysis
Client analysis
Facilities analysis
Statement of need
Confirming of need
Functional brief
Private sector
Public sector
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Investigation of
the briefing
process
Verbal instruction
from Clients
Project
Architect
Lease
Conditions
517
Functional Brief
Statutory
Ordinances
Site
Information
Concept
Design 1
Concept
Design 2
Concept
Design 3
Comments
from Clients
Scheme Design
Figure 2.
Briefing process by
private developers
have their own planning divisions to formulate the statement of need through research
on the user and by conducting studies; thus, client requirements are generally well
defined in the public projects. On the contrary, most private clients are investors who
will sell or rent the buildings to the public after the completion of the projects. They
tend to be more focused on the development program, financial flow, and completion
date. As a result, client requirements have not been well defined in private projects.
Some of the reasons suggested by interviewees are given below:
.
Client requirements change from to time to meet changes in the market, such as
the tastes and budgets of the customers, and there are no fixed requirements.
.
No detailed description will be given in the brief to prevent any legal claims from
being raised regarding modifications to the design.
.
Most private clients are highly experienced in the industry. They know exactly
what they want and are able to instruct the consultants to revise the
requirements if necessary.
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518
Some of the private clients have formed strategic partnerships with selected
consultancies. Because of long-term working relationships, these consultancies
understand their requirements very well.
Owing to the aforesaid factors, client requirements are usually loosely defined in the
private projects. Consequently, the criteria imposed by site location (which defines the
orientation and standard of buildings), lease conditions (which define the usage,
composition, plot ratio of land and project completion date) and building regulations
(which define the maximum height and layout of buildings) become the major
considerations in a briefing. These criteria may constitute more than 70 percent of the
client requirements in a typical brief. One of the respondents pointed out that briefs are
usually simple in the private sector. They might be made up of a collection of
correspondence, including e-mail, fax, the project presentation and records of informal
discussions. He concluded that this practice is efficient for maintaining a flexible brief
throughout the project cycle and he was satisfied with it.
Discussion on the findings
Most of the interviewees believed that the current practices in briefing sound practical
in the public and private sectors of the industry. However, the research findings
revealed that these practices are not effective in providing a clear understanding of
client requirements and preferences. A number of problems have been identified. These
problems are in line with the work by MacPherson et al. (1992) and a detailed
discussion is given below.
Lack of a comprehensive framework
Research findings reported that clients usually treat the briefing as an event, not a
process, and that it has not been well organised in the industry. A representative from
the public clients point out that briefing is mainly done by experience of brief-takers.
No briefing guide or menu is used neither it is done formally or informally. Thus, in the
current practice, brief-takers mainly focus on the stages of concept design and scheme
design only. This is similar the situation in the UK, in that very few brief-takers make
any real use of briefing guides to improve the process (Barrett and Stanley, 1999). It is
suggested that a briefing framework should be applied in order to improve the
comprehensiveness of briefing stages in the industry. The framework can be either
adopted from overseas studies or developed by in-house team members. The
framework provides a formal approach to ensure that all criteria and options are being
systematically investigated and thus, appropriate decisions are being made (CIB, 1997).
It also provides a mechanism to manage any changes in the brief throughout the
construction process. For example, a review workshop can be arranged to find out
whether the stated objectives have been met and what the constraints were if they were
not met.
Lack of identification of client requirements
Defining requirements is the root of a good briefing (ORielly). However, the research
findings suggest that the identification of client requirements is not being done
properly in the industry:
More clear information means weaker position in any future disputes! This is the major
reason why the private clients generally keep their requirements as vague as possible and
avoid in providing any detail information to consultancies in the briefing process. We would
provide general guidelines on standard and number of buildings, size of the flats, and
sometimes, similar examples to them, . . .
a representative from the private clients expressed. This explains the reason why the
private clients tend to overlook the identification of client requirements. Consequently,
they would save time in the stages of strategic analysis, client analysis, facilities
analysis, statement of needs and confirmation of needs, to jump to the scheme design
stage when conducting a briefing. Barrett et al. (1999) agreed that most clients do not
set out a clear set of requirements for building. Contrary to what the client may believe
this may create the potential for future disputes and result in the building of an
unsatisfactory structure. Moreover, OReilly (1987) suggested that a written record of
client requirements would be helpful in dealing with such matters as changes in
personnel, ensuring the consistency of decisions throughout the project, and informing
intended users of the building when the structure will be completed. It is concluded
that a clear set of client requirements is essential in both the public and private sectors.
Private clients should emphasize the importance identifying client requirements and
more time should be allocated for it.
Lack of contribution from clients
A brief must be owned by the client at the highest level within the client organizations
(Atkin et al., 1995). Our research findings suggest that most private clients do not
appreciate the importance of briefing and usually rely heavily on professionals to
interpret their needs in the process. This is different from the practice in the UK, where
many clients will undertake their own project/need definition in-house (Latham, 1994).
This is because clients in Hong Kong usually have a great deal of bargaining power in
the market, which enables them to shift the responsibility to the professionals and
maintain an inactive role in the briefing. This is supported by incidents in which the
consultancies undertake the feasibility study free of charge at the inception stage.
Chiang (2002) explained that, since the Asian financial turmoil in 1997, the reduction in
construction activities has intensified competition among consultants in the industry.
This approach is concluded to be ineffective and risky. The responsibility that is
shifted to consultancies will eventually be transferred back to the clients. For example,
the clients avoid providing any detailed information in the briefing. As a result,
architects take extra time to anticipate what they really want. This will result in an
increase in time and in consultancy fees. Moreover, the briefing process is a two-way
one (Barrett and Stanley, 1999). This approach might be risky because the quality of
the brief mainly depends on the experience of the architects. Latham (1994) pointed out
that architects may work on the wrong user requirements if they are fail to distinguish
between the clients needs from wants. This may cause work to be aborted during
construction.
Lack of involvement of stakeholders
Some of the respondents agreed that the involvement of stakeholders who are able to
identify the strengths and constraints of the projects from different viewpoints, is
essential in drawing up the requirements of clients, and results in a more reliable
Investigation of
the briefing
process
519
F
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project. However, the research findings show that briefs are usually produced by a
small group of people from the client organization or by consultancies in the industry,
and that the briefs may not be comprehensive. In the discussion with interviewees, we
found that the public clients usually had difficulty identifying the stakeholders and
getting them involved in the process. A representative from the public clients
suggested that the involvement of stakeholders, who can identify strengths and
constraints of the projects is important in briefing, and their consensus could ensure
the reliability of projects. Nevertheless, the stakeholders usually have different
objectives, different agendas, and different bottom lines in negotiation and thus, it is
extremely difficult for them to arrive at a consensus in meetings. This is also supported
by another representative from the public clients that stakeholders, in particular
end-users, always have too many wants instead of needs, and finally their involvement
will prolong the duration of briefing. As a result, the involvement of clients,
stakeholders and users will normally be limited. However, the briefing may suffer
because not all architects are good brief writers. Kamara and Anumba (2001) explained
that an expert in one filed may miss out vital information that is related to other
professionals. For example, architects may not be familiar with the construction
process and may overlook some matter in the construction stage. There is a tendency
for them to focus on design rather than on clearly establishing the requirements of
clients in the briefing process. Thus, the briefing may suffer because of the bias of
brief-takers. Atkin et al. (1995) concluded that decision-making should be transparent
and decisions should be communicated to all who have stakes in the project.
Lack of time spending in briefing
Investing time at the beginning of project to develop a complete definition taking into
account all of the requirements will reduce the likelihood that changes will need to be
made later (CIB, 1997). The findings of this study revealed that the current practice of
many clients is to shorten the time of the briefing to allow the work of construction to
commence at an earlier time. An inadequate amount of time is allocated for the
definition of client requirements at an early stage of the briefing so that construction
projects may end up suffering from poor definition. This is in line with the work by
Latham (1994) and Kamara and Anumba (2001), which revealed that commercial
pressures from clients may require detailed designs to be prepared as soon as possible.
This reduces the time spent on understanding the requirements of the clients and,
finally, and increases the chance of the project failing.
Conclusions
The paper has described the practice of briefing and its limitations in Hong Kongs
construction industry. It 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 study has revealed that current practices,
which have been in operation for a long time, are practical in the industry. However,
they are subject to the constraints such as lacking in a comprehensive framework;
lacking in identification of client requirements; lacking in contributions from clients;
lacking in involvement of stakeholders; and lacking in time spent on the briefing. It is
concluded that these limitations must be properly addressed by the industry in order to
improve briefing and to avoid subsequent problems in the design and construction
phases, and that more resources should be allocated. To address these problems,
further research will be conducted to explore how value management, which has been
introduced in a number of briefing-related publications (MacPherson et al., 1992;
Latham, 1994; Atkin et al., 1995), can be applied to improve the practice of briefing in
the industry.
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brief, Property Review, November, pp. 182-5.
Corresponding author
Geoffrey Q.P. Shen can be contacted at: bsqpshen@polyu.edu.hk