Construction Briefing Process in Malaysia: Procedures and Problems in the Public Sector

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.