Briefing is by no means rocket science, but it does require certain skills and expertise. If those are not available in-house, it will be useful to bring in an external client adviser or briefing consultant. Such a party can be viewed as an extra pair of hands and they can be used for specific activities such as surveys or occupancy studies. In complex projects, they can also be given responsibility for the entire briefing process and the actual writing of the brief. Perhaps the most valuable contribution a client adviser can make stems from their experience serving other clients facing similar challenges. This should enable them to work faster and to apply lessons learnt from other projects. The flip side of having a lot of experience is that a client adviser may come with a know-all attitude, which is not productive in a briefing process. The whole idea of briefing is to formulate the specific needs of a clientnot to sell them an off-the-shelf solution. A good client adviser is therefore not only a knowledgeable expert, but also a careful listener and sharp observer. External advisers should be willing to engage with clients and users to really get to understand their expectations and aspirations before puttingThis page is something on paper. As well as having a good understanding of client organizations, external consultants should also understand the other side of the table: the architects, engineers, contractors and suppliers who are going to have to work with the brief.intentionally They should know what these parties want from a brief and how they will respond to its contents. This is important because clients and design teams tend to speak different languages, and it is the task of the client adviser to make sure that things do not get lost in translation.left blankResponsibilities -Managing the briefing process (where in-house capacity/expertise is lacking).-Conducting specific briefing activities such as surveys or interviews.-Writing the entire brief or parts of it.-Communication with stakeholders.Members-People with a background in either architecture or management consulting, preferably a mix of both. -People with specific expertise of the building type in question (e.g. a workplace expert, learning space expert, et cetera).Recommendations-Make sure that the adviser has a wide experience with the building type concerned. If such experience is lacking, it needs to be compensated by excellent analytical skills.-Select a consultant who knows how to write a coherent and engaging text. It is an obvious but rare skill.-In the case of a large project, set up a proper selection procedure for hiring the adviser: invite multiple firms and compare costs and expertise.-Look for an adviser who clicks with the projects manager and the project sponsor as these three will need to work closely together.