Comparative study of the variables in construction project briefing/architectural programming

Abstract

Briefing is the process by which client requirements are identified, clarified and articulated in the early design stage of construction projects. It is crucial to the successful delivery of construction projects. Considerable research has been conducted in briefing during the past two decades. However, current briefing practices are considered inadequate by many researchers and little research has been done in sufficient depth to explore briefing variables in the construction industry. This paper introduces a comprehensive framework of the variables that have an impact on construction project briefing. A questionnaire survey was conducted to validate these variables among project managers and architects in Hong Kong, the UK and the USA. The results indicated that while there were no significant differences between the samples in the UK and the USA on the variables for construction project briefing, the views of the samples in Hong Kong deviated from the two Western countries. The Western professionals have more positive answers to most of the statements in the questionnaire. The findings have significant implications for industry practitioners to produce their guidelines for the briefing process and for the authors to draft a "how-to" briefing guide for construction projects.