• End users
• Executives "Joint" = together participants design product concept.
• Developers

• captures requirements better
• reduces requirements changes, and helps get the requirements right the first time
• helps get the user interface right the first time, higher quality
• commits top executives to the software planning process, shortening the product-approval cycle.
• eliminates features of questionable value, reducing the size of the product and the development time
• reduces organizational infighting by exposing hidden agendas, conflicting needs, and politics that can cripple a project

Roles of participants (1 of 2)

• Session leader
• Excellent communication & mediation skills, deals effectively with
• Political disputes
• Power struggles
• Personality clashes
• Controlling group including high-level executives
• Encourages quiet participants and prevents strong personalities from dominating sessions
• Must be impartial, keep an open mind and control controversies

• Executive sponsor

• has financial responsibility for the system

• End-user representative(s)

• Has authority to make binding decisions about the program
• Must be good communicator

Roles of participants (2 of 2)

• Developer
• More than one developer should attend
• Answers questions about feasibility of proposed features and costs
• Role is to provide information, not make judgements
• Must learn the system during JAD planning and design sessions to prepare them to write the specifications

• Scribe
• From the software development department to record what happens during the session.
• Active participant, asking for clarification and pointing out inconsistencies day by day.

• Specialists
• Invited as needed to provide any special expertise required
• Exception to rule that all participants must be present at all times
• Resource rather than a member of the group

• Unrealistic productivity expectations following the JAD sessions
• Premature, inaccurate estimates of remaining work following JAD sessions

• If you can't get key people to participate, don't do the JAD at all
• Don't allow observers to attend because they can't keep their mouth shut. If they are forced on you, make them attend the same training sessions as the participants
• Too many participants keep the JAD team from jelling. Accept no more than 8 people in the JAD team. If organization is skilled at JAD can be successful up to 15 people

• Works best when combined with an incremental-development lifecycle model
• Can be combined with
• rapid-development languages and
• prototyping tools

• define high-level requirements
• map out system, identify business needs system will address, system objectives, anticipated benefits, list of possible system functions, rough prioritization of system functions, and strategic and future considerations
• limiting the system scope
• decisions on what NOT to include is as important as what the system will include

• identify and estimate JAD design phase(s)
• identify the JAD design participants
• agree on schedule of the JAD design phases
• document the issues and considerations -- options and reasons

• List of system objectives,

• including strategic and future considerations

• Details of

• possible system functions,
• business needs that each function addresses,
• benefits of each function,
• estimate of the return on investment of each function,
• a rough prioritization of each function

• Limitation on the system's scope,

• including a list of functions that the system will NOT include

• List of interfaces to other systems
• List of unresolved issues during JAD session,

• including name of the issue, the person responsible, and the promised resolution date

• Plan for what happens next,

• including identification of follow-on JAD design phases, JAD design participants, JAD design schedules and rough target dates for implementation.

• orientation
• review JAD planning requirements and scope
• develop workflow diagrams show how work will be done with new system
• develop workflow description in words
• design the screen layouts and report formats
• extensive use of interactive prototypes created by developers and end-users during and between meetings
• specify processing requirements
• specify data volumes, rates, audit requirements, security requirements, …
• define interface requirements
• specify systems that the new system must interface to
• identify system data groups and functions
• map out major data structures and relationships. If system is database-oriented create a normalized database schema
• document the issues and consideration
• Record the options considered and reasons issues were resolved how they were

• Complete documents
• Complete the prototype
• Review documents, and prototype by participants
• Present result to the executive sponsor, including
• a summary of the design session,
• the JAD design,
• preliminary target implementation dates, and
• the project's current status