Abstract
Project definition refers to the first three stages of a project life cycle, namely planning, programming, and preliminary design during which client needs are identified and translated into design solutions. An ill-defined hospital project definition may lead to hospital-acquired infections or patient mortality. The traditional management practices have been proved to be inadequate since architects usually do not communicate with users, and thus do not have detailed knowledge about how services are performed in the building. There is the need for more knowledge about the subject to improve and thus promote client value generation. This study first reviews factors that impact the communication between architects and clients during project definition based on the literature. The study then offers a framework based on these factors to help managers assess and improve communication between professionals and clients. The validity of the framework will then be empirically validated and revised based on findings of a longitudinal mega-hospital case study. The main objective of the current investigation is to improve the project definition practices of complex projects, and the assumption is that an effective communication provides more value to end users, as well as better project performance in terms of environmental and social sustainability.
Highlights
The importance of effective definition and management of client needs during project definition for end user value generation have been emphasized by many researchers in the field [1,2,3]
We propose a framework that focuses on analyzing the factors that facilitate and/or hinder communication during the project definition stages
This study addressed the knowledge gap concerning factors that can facilitate or hinder the communication between design professionals and clients during project definition, widely regarded as one of the main challenges that most complex projects strive to successfully achieve
Summary
Many findings demonstrate that the current conventional practices are “inadequate”, especially in the context of complex projects [2,5,6], leading to a lack of correspondence between what users need and the final product that they get, i.e., a building [2]. According to researchers such as Whelton, Ballard [7], Winch, Usmani [8], one of the main reasons for this problem is the poor communication between designers and clients
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