Modelling client business processes as an aid to strategic briefing

The briefing process can be divided into two stages. The first is referred to as strategic briefing and is concerned with understanding the client's business processes. The second stage comprises the conceptualization of built solutions and issues of performance specification. It is the first of these two stages which often is the most problematic. Several authors have established a relationship between strategic briefing and business process re-engineering (BPR), but doubts remain regarding both the originality of BPR and the extent of its theoretical justification. A social constructivist interpretation of BPR is presented and the connection is made with soft systems methodology (SSM). It is argued that SSM offers a rigorous framework for modelling client business processes which subsumes the principles of BPR. A participative research seminar is described which evaluates the potential use of SSM using case study material. Feedback from the seminar participants provides strong support for the contention that SSM could indeed provide the basis for a significant enhancement of current briefing practice. However, there is a danger that practitioners may adopt the techniques of SSM without necessarily buying in at the methodology level. The terminology of SSM also is likely to present a barrier to those construction professionals who are unwilling to make the necessary intellectual investment.