The Client Briefing Problem: A Method for Assessing the Strategic Needs of Project Stakeholders

The pre-design stage of construction projects has become a focal point in design management research in the last decade, as it primarily the source of problems such as rework, change orders, and contractual claims. In particular, it is widely acknowledged that client briefing is an intractable problem which many projects encounter. Primarily this is because little attention is given to assessing the needs of the client, stakeholders and those of the design team. With this in mind, this paper presents a workshop-based approach known, as Strategic Needs Analysis (SNA). It is designed to assist clients, stakeholders and their design teams in determining their strategic needs for a given project. The rationale for the using a SNA approach during the early stages of the project development process and in relation to the strategic environment of the client organization are presented and discussed. The SNA process is described and applied to a case study project. It is concluded that SNA can improve the strategic decision-making process of a project, as clients are able to identify their strategic needs and thus improve the effectiveness of the briefing process.