Impact of project briefing clarity on construction project performance

Abstract

Defining a clear project brief at an early stage is critical for the project success. A lack of project brief clarity can cause design and construction changes or errors throughout project delivery, which ultimately leads to project time and cost overruns. This research proposes a dynamic simulation model to evaluate the overall impact of briefing on cost and time performance of construction projects. The causal feedback loop model portraying the impact of briefing on project cost and time performance is developed. The interrelationships that exist among the influencing factors incorporated into the stock and flow model of the project briefing. Then, the proposed model is applied in a road project to assess its applicability and performance. The results indicate that a clear project brief aid in reducing brief changes, design changes, and construction changes throughout project delivery, which can ultimately improve project cost and time performance. Despite the fact that the clear brief increases required budget and duration for the project briefing, it still represents good value to the project cost and time performance overall.