Project Brief Research Articles

A Framework for User Requirement Assessment in Technical Education Facility Planning: A Knowledge Engineering Approach

Preparation of a facility planning document for a technical education institution facility is a complex process. Building new facility or redevelopment of existing facility is necessary when the institution undergoes program expansion or program change. In designing complex facility, an appointed facility designer needs clear information and knowledge. The problem in facility planning involved the capturing of adequate and relevant knowledge on user requirements. This difficulty leads to plans not well designed and optimized, and decisions on physical facilities specifications not fully supported. A quality project brief must address the operational needs of the end user. In this paper, a user requirement assessment framework was proposed. The framework helped the planning coordinators to capture and organize relevant knowledge using knowledge engineering concept so as to assist decision makers in producing a suitable brief project document. A combination of qualitative methods, ethnography and non- participatory observation to uncover the hidden relationships using Malaysian Polytechnic's Facility Project Briefing implementation examples and cases. A simple decision making process was incorporated in a prototype to showcase the user requirements and decisions made from the captured and stored knowledge. The findings of this paper contribute to the development of a meaningful and functional project brief through the user requirement planning framework with the application of knowledge taxonomy and ontology in knowledge engineering approach.

Introducing nurse prescribing in a substance misuse treatment service

In this article, a project commissioned by a drug and alcohol action team in the south west of England is described. The project brief is to implement non-medical prescribing (NMP) within a substance misuse treatment service in order to increase flexibility of resources for delivery of care. All nurses working within the substance misuse service who are paid at agenda for change band 6 are involved in delivery ( NHS Careers, 2012 ). It is the intention that all will take on a prescribing role, which will introduce more than 10 non-medical prescribers. The project is linked to a strategically led service redesign; one of the aims of which is to improve access to the substance misuse service in isolated rural areas ( Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust and Drug and Alcohol Action Team, 2010 ). This article outlines the background for the change; the strategies used to implement the project, particularly those used to motivate and involve participants including users of services; and the agreed deliverables. It concludes with a critical evaluation of the project progress to date, together with an outline of how the new arrangements will be sustained and measured, and lessons learned for future similar projects. The project, which started life as a NMP project, has been developed in to an overarching ‘prescribing project’. An additional benefit of the project has been increased engagement and acceptance of change.

Design and the Researchable Question

When a researcher begins a study, a crucial step is to state the research question, which must be precise and lead directly to the choice of research methods used in the attempt to answer it. Designers who seek information that will help them make better informed decisions must be able to ask a researchable question. What is the difference between a research question and a researchable question? The former, a scientist's research question, may be in the form of a hypothesis associated with a study method intended to discover whether or not the hypothesis is supported. It leads to the development of new knowledge. The latter, a designer's researchable question, is a path toward the discovery of potentially important information that already exists.A designer must use a variety of sources to discover relevant evidence for each unique project. The designer cannot rely on outdated information or ignore new information. Discovering relevant evidence means seeking out the most reliable information about any important topic that could influence a key design decision. This requires an understanding of what makes research findings credible. The range of information potentially relevant to a project is wide. Discovery entails looking for information in new, unfamiliar places. To do this requires the ability to ask the right questions.To ask the right questions, designers need sources of evidence from new fields. A hospital architect must learn about medicine, the healthcare system, and the nurse's role in care delivery. A sustainable project requires its architect to understand air quality, energy consumption in buildings, green building materials, and the ecology of natural systems. Practitioners using evidence-based design must be prepared to step outside the boundaries of their traditional education to explore the possibilities of information and credible evidence in unfamiliar fields.Identify a Key Design IssueThe first step should be totally familiar to every experienced practitioner. Anyone with a design education has been taught to identify issues crucial to the design problem and is accustomed to focusing on these key issues as they initiate the design process. Key design issues are best if the associated design decision will have a major impact and the design team and client have to learn more about the topic.Convert Key Design Issues Into Researchable QuestionsProducing researchable questions may require new skills. Typically, the description of a key design issue is not in a form that lends itself to a literature search. An architect must take each statement of a key design issue and convert it into one or more researchable questions. It is likely that each design issue will produce several questions. The main idea is to break the statement of a key design issue into questions that enable the search for information. These questions should be specific enough to empower the searcher and to allow for the possibility of an answer.It helps to begin with clear definitions. If the design issue is to reduce drug mixing errors in a cancer center, for example, one should ask what specifics constitute drug mixing and what precisely is meant by error. By asking deeper questions, one might begin to search a number of narrower topics such as distraction, stress, fatigue, and environmental aspects of the place where drug mixing occurs. One of the questions might be which elements of the physical environment play a role in error? If lighting, noise, enclosure, temperature, and air movement are possible factors associated with error, then a series of more specific search questions can be derived.Collect Information Relevant to the Researchable QuestionsThis step might require skills the designer has seldom used since leaving the university; it is the heart of an evidence-based process. It builds on the skills used in preparing a traditional project brief in which decisions are made to define the objectives and scope of a project. …

Improving Practice in Communication with Older People and Support Networks Living in Housing with Care Schemes: Aspirations and Ambitions

Options relating to housing with care will likely increase, as they potentially promote choice and independence. If housing with care services offer end-of-life care to their service users, their staff will need to engage with social workers and other professional networks and these professionals will need to understand the context and ethos of housing with care provision. In order to investigate whether existing literature will assist professional communication across sectors, a scoping literature review was conducted incorporating three stages: (i) database searches, (ii) harvesting further literature, and (iii) data extraction and analysis. Findings were grouped into themes, according to the project brief, focusing on: confidence and skills, making decisions and plans, and access to support and training. Several elements were identified as potentially supportive of staff confidence, such as obtaining biographical information, mutually respectful working relationships, managerial support and better understanding of specialist communication needs. There are research gaps in knowledge and understanding of day-to-day communication and decision making.

Construction Briefing Process in Malaysia

Malaysia is progressing smoothly toward the achievement of Vision 2020. In achieving this vision, the country has to undergo tremendous development. Aside from providing houses for the people, the construction industry has to support the development of other industries with various types of wide-scale projects implemented by either public or private sectors. It is acknowledged that project briefing is the most important process conducted during the initial stage of project development. The research was undertaken to study the public sector’s construction briefing process and to investigate the problems arising during the process. Data was gathered through face-to-face interview. The data gathered supported that the public sector was using the RIBA plan of work but leaning towards the Netherlands approach. In addition, the project brief was seen as a powerful tool to be controlled at the early stage of project planning (initial stage). The result supported previous studies that pointed out the lack of knowledge and the involvement of inexperienced parties, either clients or consultants, as the main barriers for the integrated and strategic project briefing. This study contributes useful and beneficial information for the public sector to mitigate the project problems.

Management of client requirements for design and build projects in the construction industry of Hong Kong

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the prevailing practice of managing client requirements for design and build (D&B) construction projects in Hong Kong. It attempts to evaluate the limitations and addresses the need for a practical framework for facilitating the implementation of client requirements management within the industry.Design/methodology/approachTwo research instruments were used in this paper: semi‐structured interviews and case studies.FindingsThe study revealed that the limitations of the current practice included the lack of a comprehensive client's project brief, inadequate involvement of client in the briefing process, the lack of impartial agents, the controversy caused by the uncertain legal status of end‐users and the improper timing of raising requirements by key project stakeholders. Recommendations are given that an inclusive project brief is necessary in clarifying the goals and covering all‐rounded perspectives. A practical framework is needed to improve the client requirements management practice within the construction industry.Research limitations/implicationsThe D&B procurement system adopted in Hong Kong actually exists in various forms within the construction industry, which differ from the prototype that has long been recognized. Therefore, a more detailed study into D&B projects covering a broader area is necessary in the future.Originality/valueLittle research work has been undertaken on the study of client requirements management, especially for D&B construction projects. This paper has improved the comprehension of the nature of client requirements and has provided valuable insights into the prevailing problems associated with the management of client requirements.

A methodology for attaining and assessing project success for rehabilitation projects

The paper explores the concept of project success for rehabilitation projects and its determination. The ultimate evaluation and decision as to whether a project has been a success must be based upon clear and measurable assessment criteria. The end products evaluation should be related to a clear and deliverable project brief. Knowing what is to be undertaken and its allocated timeframe is important, however having the necessary resources, and a thorough initial building evaluation is also vital. It is proposed to use a developed ‘Project Life Cycle’ model as a basis for demonstrating what, how and why certain key issues have to be addressed at the commencement of a project. If these key issues have been addressed before the project starts, its ultimate success is a more certain proposition. Contracting organisations, construction managers and project surveyors will find the issues discussed and the proposed ‘Project Life Cycle’ methodology of value. It can be adopted and utilised by project managers when they are considering how to structure and manage future projects. For example, when considering project management, the key aspects of time, cost and quality (or specifications) are always considered. These three aspects, however, should be overlayed with the concept of managing people. After all, it is people and not things that deliver project outcomes. This concept and its importance to project success shall be discussed and demonstrated.

History places

This article presents a project-based case study that was developed for students with diverse backgrounds and varied inclinations for engaging technical topics. The project, called History Places, requires that student teams develop a vision for a kind of digital library, propose a conceptual model, and use the model to derive a logical model and information retrieval specification. From these two design representations, students implement a data-driven Web site that enables users to browse content and search by exact and best-match queries. The project brief contains a set of general requirements that promote creative solutions, while also bounding the complexity of the solution space. The article includes teaching notes and a conceptual model, expressed as an enhanced entity-relationship model in UML. The model, consisting of approximately ten entities, contains binary, unary, ternary, and specialization/generalization relationships. The article concludes with some reflections based on the experiences of using this project in six classes over four years.

It's All About Getting What You Want What We Want Is to Make Work That Fits

AbstractToday we live in a culture of institutionalised public realm – it is not the grass‐roots activity of the 1970s. However, Liza Fior, Katherine Clarke and Sophie Handler of muf architecture explain how the collaborative nature of the practice, both internally and in its approach to any project brief, defines how, today, a community is as strong as the questions it is prepared to ask of itself. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Analysis of factors that drive brief development in construction

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse the factors that drive changes to the construction project brief and the background to those factors. The founding argument, that incorporating these changes is paramount for achieving client satisfaction, introduces the concept of dynamic brief development (DBP), which permits changes throughout the project life cycle. The understanding and attitude of the major construction project stakeholders towards DBP are investigated along with identifying the originators of brief development and the value and risk sources.Design/methodology/approachA threefold method was used comprising a comprehensive questionnaire survey followed by structured interviews. The results of these were further investigated though a brainstorming session with major construction project stakeholders. A total population of 266,434 units for the survey was identified, reduced to a random stratified sample of 530. The response rate was 49.2 per cent and the responses were analysed using a weighted relative importance index. A total of 88 interviews were carried out and 12 client organisations participated in the brainstorming session.FindingsThe findings lead to the conclusion that there is a need to set out a detailed brief development management system that incorporates both value management and risk management. This system should enable the appropriate project participant to make informed decisions at the right time for the benefit of the client. The system must facilitate feedback to both client organisations and construction professionals to enable lessons to be learned. Understanding the relationship between the factors that drive brief development and the various project team members will facilitate managing brief development in a way that increases client satisfaction and enhances the performance of the project.Originality/valueThe paper identifies deficiencies in current practices and techniques and presents a system which overcomes them.

Improving Concessionaire Selection Protocols in Public/Private Partnered Infrastructure Projects

A critical contributor to the success of a public/private partnered (PPP) infrastructure project is the selection of the right private-sector partner, the concessionaire, who would provide the best overall deal throughout the build-operate-transfer (BOT)[build/operate/transfer] development process. This paper proposes a core concessionaire selection protocol that incorporates public procurement principles, best-value selection approach, competitive selection process, and multicriteria tender evaluation. Key pointers for an improved concessionaire selection protocol are discussed and analyzed by drawing experience and learning lessons from worldwide PPP practices. These include improved project brief and tender documents, formulation of a best-value selection methodology, determination of suitable criteria and methods for prequalification and tender evaluation, capital structure (equity-to-debt ratio), financial models, and potential improvements in different stages of the concessionaire selection process. Relevant results of a questionnaire survey of international PPP expert opinions on an enhanced concessionaire selection protocol are also presented.

A Long and Winding Road: Mature Students' Responses to Creative Experience

AbstractThis paper reports mature students' responses to a creative project, focusing on their own analyses to identify and demonstrate the conditions required to provide worthwhile creative experience for participants unused to such practices. In considering their reactions to the project brief, the paper demonstrates the lack of confidence felt by many when faced with creative work, arising out of myths about the exclusive nature of creativity. The report then identifies some ways in which a creative approach was fostered: by giving permission to non‐experienced students to work in a creative manner (by dismantling some of the mythology), by providing a personal space (both physical and mental) for this to take place, by encouraging a playful attitude to the project that enjoyed ambiguity and uncertainty, and by feeding the students' ideas with a programme of enhancement experiences. The place of one‐to‐one tutorials in developing an appropriate approach is evidenced. Throughout the paper, students' own responses provide forceful support for engagement in practical creative activity, demonstrating the sense of empowerment felt, and showing how the experience initiated long‐term developments in their thinking, both professionally and personally.

Collaborative Frameworks for Early Numeracy: The House that Josh Built

One of the dilemmas faced by early childhood professionals concerns the problem of creating intellectual challenge—leading children towards abstract and more conventionally logical ways of perceiving experience and reality—without disturbing their natural curiosities and potential for self-regulation. In an effort to bring together a context highly valued by informal learning environments—play, and content related to an abstract representation system, an early numeracy project was undertaken by a group of pre-service Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood) students. The project's main aims were to: a) investigate the potential of open-ended contexts to engage children's interest in, understanding and appreciation of, numeracy; b) focus on the teacher's role as mediator so that predominantly collaborative interactional contexts were created. The project involved each student working with one or two children in K-2 classes twice a week over a period of five weeks. Part of the project's brief was for the students to create a resource kit of objects and materials to stimulate and sustain both mathematical and imaginative involvement (for example: a tool kit, a magic kit, a stationery kit). With the support of video, tape-recorded and survey data, this paper focuses on one child's numeracy as it developed during the project, and on specific aspects of the mediator role implemented by the pre-service students.

Loose connections: The context of science teachers' work

This paper is based on an interview study with eighty science teachers in twelve secondary schools across Australia. The study was conducted as part of the Science Education Professional Development Project. The project's brief was to develop a national strategy for the professional development of science teachers and was commissioned by the Federal Government's Department of Employment, Education and Training. The aim of the interviews was to help define the problem that a national strategy needed to address and this paper reports on one theme that emerged from the interviews, the concept of “loose connections.” Loose connections reflects the weak sense of professional community we found among science teachers and their isolation from potentially beneficial influences on their work. The paper explores implications of loose connections for a national professional development strategy such as the need to strengthen areas of professional responsibility and links between professional development and career development.

Interdisciplinary project work: practice makes perfect?

This paper reports the findings of an action research study into a major interdisciplinary group project. The project was performed over one semester by some 180 third-year undergraduate students majoring in engineering and design disciplines at De Montfort University in the United Kingdom. The paper discusses the rationale behind the project, the academic background of the students and the project brief. In addition, the assessment criteria used by the academic staff to assess the work of the groups is introduced. The paper utilizes the research findings to identify and discuss a number of changes in students' performance, attitude and culture. The results of the research into undergraduate multi-disciplinary teams are compared to findings from research into multi-disciplinary projects operated in the European motor car industry. Finally, a comparison is then made with current findings of studies of student multi-disciplinary work in the American academic environment. The author concludes that multi-disciplinary product design teams yield many tangible benefits including the rapid development of marketable products. Undergraduate students also gain many intangible benefits such as improved interpersonal skills, positive emotions and an increase in personal performance and motivation through working in multi-disciplinary teams.

When Two Worlds Collide

This paper outlines and discusses issues arising from a specific evaluation project. The project brief was to conduct a communications audit of a UK National Health Service trust hospital, focusing particularly upon the interface between junior doctors and other professional groups within the hospital. The experience of conducting the research and operating as management evaluators within a medical research environment is also discussed. The stages and mechanics of designing, conducting and reporting the research are outlined. Apart from the political issues, there are several challenges involved in undertaking non-medical research in a medical setting where the work environment is only slowly coming to terms with adapting a more managerial philosophy whilst being, traditionally, hostile to managerialism. These issues are discussed, the perspectives of the team members (both hospital based and university based) are explored and learning points for future projects are outlined.

The Design Consultant as a STRATEGIC RESOURCE

TO MEET A GROWING ARRAY of client needs, design firms are expanding their capabilities. Consultants, in Jeffry Corbin's profile, are responsible not only for products and graphics, but also for such tasks as research, developing the project brief, cost control, and marketing. To remain competitive, designers must invest in technology and training and look for ways to leverage resources through multidisciplinary partnerships. Clients expect this value‐added service, and consultants should see it as a challenge and an opportunity.

Non-users of the Upper Goulburn Library Service

The Upper Goulburn Regional Library Service covers a large area, but has the lowest population density of any library service in Victoria. Library management wished to gain information to maximise use of the service and decided to achieve this by a survey of non-users. This article describes the project brief, design and administration of the survey, and detailed findings. Evidence from the survey suggests that between 55% and 78% of current non-users are potential users of the Upper Goulburn Library Service. Indicators for future planning were to promote the service more generally within the community, and to introduce more technology-based services.

Action Research—who owns the process?

Many action research projects initiated to bring about certain outcomes in classrooms are externally funded and managed. The tensions brought about by such circumstances are discussed in this paper. The points raised are illustrated by a case study of a project funded to explore the construction of gender in the early years of schooling. Although the aims specified for the project were achieved, some members of the project management committee had expectations of the participants in the project which resembled a technical approach to action research and a top‐down approach to the management of change. The difficulties brought about by the external funding and management of the project relate to the choice of topics for investigation by the participants, the time line for the project and the nature of the end product specified by the project brief.

Soft systems and systems engineering: on the use of conceptual models in information system development

Abstract. Many recent studies have shown that computer‐based systems continue to ‘fail’ at a number of different levels (Romtec, 1988; KPMG, 1990) and it is increasingly apparent (Maclaren et al., 1991) that the most serious failures of information technology (IT) lie in the continuing inability to address those concerns which are central to the successful achievement of individual, organizational and social goals. It is the contention of this paper that this failing is precisely because these are the areas which are ignored or inadequately treated by conventional system development methods.There is, of course, a vast body of literature concerned with the understanding of complex human activity systems. This literature often reflects a mass of contradictions at the epistemological and the ontological level about the behaviour of such systems and has also spawned numerous methods (and methodologies) which seek to guide the individual in making successful interventions into organizational situations (Rosenhead, 1989).Despite this multiplicity of viewpoints many writers have posited a dichotomy between so‐called 'soft and ‘hard’ approaches to problem situations and use this dichotomy to inform the choice of an appropriate problem‐solving methodology (Checkland, 1985). In this paper we characterize these two approaches as being concerned with either the purpose(s) of the human activity system (i.e. ‘doing the right thing’) or with the design of the efficient means of achieving such purpose(s) (i.e. ‘doing the thing right’).It is our belief that much of the literature and work in either area has not concerned itself with the issues of the other. Writers on ‘hard’ engineering methods often assume the question of purpose to be either straightforward (e.g. given in the project brief) or, paradoxically, too difficult (e.g. it is not our concern as mere systems analysts). Writers on ‘soft’ methods on the other hand rarely have anything to say about the design and implementation of well‐engineered computer‐based systems, giving the impression that this is a somewhat mundane activity better left to technical experts.This paper, therefore, attempts to set out a rationale for the bringing together of principles from both ‘hard’ engineering and ‘soft’ inquiry methods without doing epistemological damage to either. To illustrate our argument we concentrate on JSD (Jackson system development) as an example of system engineering (Cameron, 1983) and SSM (soft systems methodology) as an example of system inquiry (Checkland, 1981; Checkland & Scholes, 1990). Our general thesis, however, does not depend upon either of these two approaches per se but applies to the overall issue of bringing together insights from two apparently opposed epistemological positions in an effort better to harness the power of IT in pursuit of purposeful human activity.