This section describes the overall SARM process. Later sections will provide detailed guidance on how to use the Excel software tool to support evaluations that apply the SARM process.
The SARM process is divided into two parts, Creating the Context and the Trade-off Analysis. The first activity, stakeholder analysis, is typically conducted in a separate meeting with just the project sponsor and the architect or designer that takes place at the outset of the project. The remaining activities of Part 1 are ideally conducted in a single substantial workshop. The two activities of Part 2 are also ideally conducted in a single workshop, the Trade-off Analysis Workshop.
In between these two activities there is often a substantial passage of time, when the solution options that will be evaluated are created. This might be done by in-house architecture or design teams, or be part of a tender process involving external bidders, or a combination of the two. The work conducted in Part 1 makes a substantial contribution to develop an understanding of the requirements, which might form the basis for a project brief for internal design teams, or the requirements section of a Request for Proposal. Part 1 therefore creates the context for both the architecture/design activity and the subsequent evaluation of alternatives.
Click below to read more about each activity.