Four activities of the programming process: initiation to closeout

One-line orientation

A practical workflow is to initiate the project, gather information, document the program, then obtain approval and hand it to the design team. Other programming processes may organize the work differently.

Key points

• 1 — Project Initiation: set up the effort. Develop a work plan, assemble the programming team and assign tasks, plan meetings, define activities and deliverables, and list what information already exists versus what still needs to be collected from the client.
• 2 — Information Request: gather the data. Collect client data (including capacity requirements), conduct site analysis, site visits, and interviews with users. The programming squatters technique can concentrate this work into intensive sessions, usually at the project site.
• 3 — Program Documentation: gather all the collected data and organize it into a variety of deliverable documents (space lists, brown sheets, room data sheets, etc. — see the documentation-tools card).
• 4 — Approval, Handoff, and Closeout: present findings to the client for approval, hand off the gathered information and the problem statement to the design team, and archive the information for future reference.

Two lists, one end point: the 5 steps vs the 4 activities

The steps are questions you answer; the activities are tasks you perform.

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Don't merge the lists: 'goals' is a step; 'information request' is an activity.

Activity 2 uses the programming squatters technique when the site is far from the architect's office.

Confusions / comparison

Activity	Key tasks	Output
1. Project Initiation	Work plan; assemble team, assign tasks; plan meetings; list existing vs needed information	A scoped, staffed programming effort
2. Information Request	Client data + capacity requirements; site analysis, visits, user interviews; squatters technique if site is remote	The raw facts and requirements
3. Program Documentation	Gather all data; organize into deliverable documents	The program deliverables
4. Approval, Handoff, Closeout	Client approval; hand off information + problem statement to design team; archive	An approved program in the designers’ hands

The exam’s favorite confusion is between this list and the five steps:

	Five steps (Goals → State the Problem)	Four activities (Initiation → Closeout)
What it is	Intellectual framework — what you must figure out	Workflow — how the effort is managed
Nature of items	Questions answered (what/why, what we know, how, resources, direction)	Tasks performed (plan, collect, document, approve)
End point	The problem statement (design criteria)	Handoff of the problem statement + archive

Related

→ prog-five-step-process (this module): the intellectual framework these activities execute · prog-documentation-tools (this module): the deliverable documents produced in Activity 3 · prog-gaming-simulation (this module): user-engagement techniques used during Information Request · prog-programming-vs-design (this module): where the whole programming effort sits in the project sequence.