Transparency has become a bit of a business buzzword, with companies and organisations claiming transparency as a differentiator and marketing tool. But in the world of architectural projects how important is it to provide transparency for your client and the wider team?

At briq.works we believe that by providing clients with the appropriate level of transparency you give them confidence and build trust in your ability to deliver their project successfully.  

What’s more…by using software to provide your client with an easy to access online view of their project timeline, tasks and key documents you meet the expectations of today’s increasingly tech savvy consumer.   

If you work with private domestic clients, you will know that many have no prior experience of a building project and therefore have no knowledge of the process or understanding of the costs and timescales involved.

As their architect, it is critical for the success of the project that you guide the client through the process in a structured and pro-active way. Being transparent about what is involved in a project is key to that.

In the UK the RIBA have provided help on this with the creation and publication of the Plan of Work which is designed to give a framework on which architects can create a project plan and programme of work.

We know from talking to many architects that projects don’t always have documented programmes or that maybe a programme is planned and created at the start of a project, but is not then kept up to date.

However, we also know from talking to clients of architects that they value having a detailed view of the project timeline, with an explanation of the stages and individual tasks.

Most clients want to know the detail of their project and want to be involved. They want to clearly see what tasks require their input, by when and the dependencies. They are keen to understand early in the process how delays may occur if certain tasks aren’t completed on time so that they can play a part in helping to avoid delays and problems.

You may feel that providing your client with this level of detail is unnecessary or could create more questions or problems. But the best project managers will tell you that working on a need to know basis and being reactive to clients is inefficient and feeling ill informed can create friction and disputes.

It doesn’t have to be a hard and arduous task to enable transparency. briq.works is a project management platform designed and developed specifically for architects and their clients to enable the sharing and tracking of project information and progress.  

Architect Adrian uses briq.works and he told us “I use briq.works for both task and client management. I check a few times a week when tasks need starting/completing and get my clients involved early on. Clients then have a much better handle on the steps involved in the project timeline. I find they love it as a method for information sharing and communication.” https://briq.works/users/

And finally in the words of Joe Thompson briq.works co-founder and trained project manager “No client has ever complained about having access to too much information”.