Geoffrey Qiping Shen

Briefing from a facilities management perspective

Purpose – 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.Design/methodology/approach – 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.Findings – 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, the...

Application of value management in project briefing

Purpose – 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.Design/methodology/approach – 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.Findings – 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.Originality/value – This paper improves comprehension of the nature, chara...

A typology of operational approaches for stakeholder analysis and engagement

Stakeholder analysis and engagement are the main tasks in stakeholder management. To identify operational approaches for stakeholder analysis and engagement, six interviews and a questionnaire survey were conducted in Hong Kong, and an additional 15 interviews were held in Australia. The main finding is a typology of practical approaches for practitioners in construction. A total of 30 approaches are comprised in the typology, and they are classified by application. To test the usefulness of the typology, action research is applied to two real‐life projects in Australia. The implication is that the selection of the approaches is an art and a contingency approach as well, requiring practitioners’ judgments. Each approach has its strengths and limitations, so the most appropriate way for effective stakeholder management is to use a combination of elements from each approach as circumstances dictate. This study can serve as a reference for the systematic consideration of the project management team about the operational approaches for stakeholder management in construction projects.

Recycling attitude and behaviour in university campus: a case study in Hong Kong

Purpose – This study investigates the recycling attitudes and behaviour of university students and staff members, and suggests ways to improve environmental policies and recycling facilities in a university campus.Design/methodology/approach – This study applies the theory of planned behaviour, through which it develops an instrument to measure the determinants of recycling behaviour among the people in a university campus. A survey was designed and administered at a public university in Hong Kong; 205 valid responses from 179 students and 26 staff members were collected. A partial least squares approach was used to validate the proposed model. This model accounted for the 42.1 per cent and 50.3 per cent variance (R2) in behavioural intention and behaviour, respectively, vis‐a‐vis recycling activities.Findings – The survey results suggested that behavioural intention with regard to recycling is influenced by attitude, the subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, awareness of consequences, the mora...

Factors Affecting Schedule Delay, Cost Overrun, and Quality Level in Public Construction Projects

AbstractAs a result of the loss of financial resources and the need to optimize projects, academics, politicians, and the construction industry have become increasingly aware of the challenges presented by the frequent time and cost overruns and reduced quality of construction projects. The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors that project managers experience as having the greatest effect on time, cost, and quality, and to discover whether the effects of these factors are significantly different from each other. A questionnaire with 26 factors identified from interviews was sent to the full population of publicly employed project managers. Factors were ranked using the relative importance index and tested for significant differences using Friedman’s test. Wilcoxon’s test was used in a post-hoc analysis. From the findings it was determined that the most influential factor for time is unsettled or lack of project funding; for cost, errors or omissions in consultant material; and for quality, err...

Identification of Key Performance Indicators for Measuring the Performance of Value Management Studies in Construction

Value management (VM) is widely regarded as a useful tool for management to meet the challenges, such as limited resources and tight schedules arising in the construction industry. A rigorous measurement on the performance of VM studies is likely to improve the implementation of the VM methodology and enhance the confidence of clients about their investment in VM. The identification of key performance indicators (KPIs) is an essential first step in developing a proper performance measurement framework. This paper aims to identify the KPIs for measuring the performance of VM studies in construction. Delegates of international VM conferences hosted by SAVE International and Hong Kong Institute of Value Management during the period 2005 to 2007 were used as the target group for a questionnaire survey. The survey results identified 18 KPIs out of 47 potential performance indicators. They are divided into three groups: predicting indicators, process-related indicators, and outcome-related indicators, according...

A critical investigation of the briefing process in Hong Kong's construction industry

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 undertake...

Value management : recent developments and way forward

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the development of value management (VM) over the last few decades and propose ways for future development.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative research methodology was adopted which involved a comprehensive review of relevant literature leading to a better understanding of the history and development of VM. A way forward is suggested for the future development of VM.Findings – The research revealed that sustainable development is an area which has great potential for the application of a VM methodology in the construction industry in order to ensure sustainable design and development is leveraged during the life span of construction projects.Originality/value – The research work described in this paper encourages researchers and practitioners to integrate VM and sustainable development. It enables the VM community to have a better understanding of applying VM techniques to address “green building” issues and the potential of applying VM to promote s...

Problems and solutions of requirements management for construction projects under the traditional procurement systems

Purpose – This paper aims to focus on requirements management of projects constructed under traditional procurement system. It seeks to discuss the requirements management processes highlighting the limitations and addressing the need for a practical framework for facilitating the implementation of requirements management in the construction industry.Design/methodology/approach – Two research instruments were used in this paper: semi‐structured interviews and case studies.Findings – The literature review introduced a generic process for requirements management practice potentially to be adopted in the construction industry. The research study identified that the processes and limitations of current practice included the lack of a practical framework, misinterpretation of requirements, difficulties in identifying requirements, conflicts between expectation and constraints, complex hierarchy of clients organisation and communication problems in eliciting client requirements. Recommendations are given that ...

An analytical review of briefing practice in the Hong Kong construction industry

Abstract A comprehensive client brief is essential to achieve the target time, cost and quality for a construction project. Although various attempts have been made to improve the current practice of briefing, it is still considered as inadequate by many researchers. In Hong Kong, very limited research work has been conducted to investigate the briefing process. This paper aims to present the key findings of a research, which analysed the practice and problems of briefing. Literature review, focus group interviews and a questionnaire survey were adopted to conduct the research. The findings implicate that a comprehensive framework for briefing should be established for systematic identification and clarification of client requirements, and precise and explicit representation of these requirements. It is suggested that this framework should include the stages and time frame of briefing, identification and representation of stakeholders to be involved in briefing, a systematic approach for identification, clarification and representation of client requirements, change management of requirements and management tools to be adopted in the briefing process and the format of a comprehensive client brief.