Gameson, R; Suresh, S and Chinyio, E (2008) Project debriefing: A multi-domain review of practices and procedures. In: Dainty, A (ed.) Proceedings of 24th Annual ARCOM Conference, 1-3 September 2008, Cardiff, UK.
Abstract
Construction project teams have, historically, been temporary in nature, often formed for a single project. Significant research has been conducted on construction processes and procedures examining various stages of a project’s development and delivery. Numerous authors have identified the importance of the construction project 'briefing' process, with regard to clearly understanding a clients' requirements, leading to the project team translating these into a satisfactory and completed facility. However, there has been limited investigation into the converse process of 'debriefing'; i.e. reviewing, reflecting and learning relating to how project teams have performed. The aim of the research being reported is to conduct a theoretical review of literature relating to the debriefing processes. A range of knowledge domains, both within and outside of a construction context, which document project review, after action review, and post-mortem practices and procedures have been investigated; for example: counselling, computer software development, the military and general project management. The research method is exploratory with the objective of developing, firstly, an understanding of the current body of knowledge. This leads on to an analysis of the literature to evaluate currently available debriefing practices, followed by the presentation of key factors relating to how such practices might be applied to construction projects and teams, particularly with regard to capturing and evaluating team members' experiences, and facilitating future improved performance. The outcome of this literature-based desk study is the identification of key issues which will allow the research to move into an 'experimental' phase where the key issues can be pilot tested. The research is seen as important to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of project team members and, subsequently, contribute to more efficient and effective project team performance – closing the project team life-cycle loop.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | debriefing; knowledge capture; project teams |
| Index terms: | software development, construction project team, efficiency, effectiveness, investigation, construction process, construction project, project management, project team, briefing, body of knowledge, knowledge capture |
| Subjects: | data collection methods, scope management, project delivery, knowledge management, software systems, performance management, project management theory and practice, production management, building construction |
| Topics: | Quality Management, Site Management, Engineering Principles, Information Management, Project Management, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here