Best Practice: Joint Application Development (JAD)

The focus of this best practice is on Joint Application Development, commonly referred to simply as JAD.

· Overview
· Goals of JAD
· Applicability
· Efficacy
· Major Risks
· Detailed Description
· Roles
· Benefits
· Interactions with Other Best Practices
· Keys to Success in using JAD

Overview
JAD is a results-oriented approach to collecting high quality information and developing project deliverables in a compressed timeframe using facilitated workshops.

A facilitated workshop uses a facilitator to guide participants through a structured process. The process is designed to produce one or more project deliverables interactively with the workshop participants. The process is developed as a detailed agenda before the workshop takes place.

Goals of JAD
The goals of JAD are to:
• Improve the communication between business users and a project team.
• Speed up the development process by performing several tasks in a single workshop
• that otherwise may take several weeks or months to complete using more traditional
• information gathering and decision making approaches.
• Improve the quality of deliverables by promoting involvement from all parties interested
• in the deliverable.
• Increase creativity by involving many people in design activities.
• Remove project teams from the function of intermediary in the negotiation and resolution
• of conflicts by directly involving all interest groups.

Applicability
JAD can be used for many activities involved with project management, strategic planning and solution development. It can also be used in any situation where a consensus is required on a subject from a group of people.

The most common uses are for:
• Strategy development
• Defining the scope of a project
• Gathering requirements
• Developing business models (use cases)
• Developing business object models

Efficacy
• Potential reduction from normal schedule (excellent)
• Improvement in progress visibility (good)
• Potential to improve final product quality (excellent)
• Effect on schedule risk (decreased risk)
• Effect on project cost (decreased cost)
• Chance of first-time success (good)
• Chance of long-term success (good)

Major Risks
• Using an inexperienced workshop Facilitator
• Workshop participants feeling that they are not listened to
• Inability to schedule the right people for the workshop
• History—we tried JAD before and it didn’t work for us

There are three major steps in JAD
• Planning the workshops
• Running the workshops
• Completing and distributing the workshop deliverables

Planning the workshops
Planning involves the following:
• Gain agreement to using JAD sessions
• Decide on the workshops that you need on your project and
• the deliverables that will be produced
• Develop a detailed agenda for each workshop
• Choose and invite the participants
• Workshop logistics
• Gain agreement to using JAD sessions

Some organizations are familiar with and dedicated to using JAD sessions. We probably wouldn’t be working for the client if we didn’t plan to use JAD on the project. In other organizations, the concept needs to be sold to the client, perhaps because of past failures. The material in this best practice can be used to describe the approach and to sell it if necessary.

Deciding on the workshops
The next step is to decide what workshops make sense for your project.
You should consider the:
• business people involved with the project and if JAD sessions will be a
• good way to involve them
• deliverables that you want to produce
• steps in the development process you are addressing

Write a one-page description of each workshop using the following template:

Objective
Make a sentence statement of the objective of the workshop.

Deliverables
• A list of the deliverables you want out of the workshop.
• Workshop Overview Description
• A paragraph describing the overall approach you intend to take for the workshop.

Agenda Steps
• Create a numbered list of the steps you intend to go through. The first step is
• always ‘Introduction’; the last is always ‘Close’.
• This description should be suitable for sending out to the participants as a description
• of the workshop, but it is not enough detail for the Facilitator to run the workshop.
• Develop a detailed agenda for each workshop.

To successfully facilitate the workshop the Facilitator needs to have a well defined process for carrying out each step in the process. This should go to the level of how you will use the flip charts during each step. For example, will you peel off the pages and stick them on the wall or just fold them over. It makes a difference if you want to go back to write more on them. More importantly, you do not want to be deciding how you will carry out a particular step with eight people waiting on your every word.

Complete a description of each step using the following template to create
the detailed agenda:

Purpose
Make a sentence stating the purpose of this step in the agenda.

Process
Detailed blow-by-blow description of how you will carry out the step.

Deliverable
List of the deliverables from this step in the agenda. Usually you only want one deliverable from each step.

Timing
Estimated time for this step.
Choosing and inviting the participants

The success of each workshop is dependent on the workshop participants. The client Project Manager or business representative should decide who the most appropriate people are to attend each workshop. You want to get thinkers and discussion makers in the workshop, usually at the most senior level possible. For business process and object model workshops, you need people who really understand the business, so you may want 'real' workers and their supervisors.

Workshop logistics
Arranging a suitable venue and inviting the participants are the most important aspects of the workshop logistics. The following diagram shows an ideal layout for a workshop room:

workshop diagram

The U-shape is very important. It allows all the participants to see and hear each other and the middle of the U is a useful area for the Facilitator. You can block people out, get between arguing people, move close to people who insist on having side conversations, move close to hear people, etc. The next most important thing is to have plenty of space to stick flip chart pages on the wall.

On-site versus off-site is always an issue. The theory used to be that taking people off-site is better because they cannot go back to their desk. Now that everyone has a cell phone it makes less difference. If a workshop will last more than one day, you want to be in the same room all the time and this can often only be achieved by going off-site to a hotel.

There may be material that needs to be prepared for the workshop. This may be material that will be sent out to the participants in advance, or that will be used in the workshop. The client should issue the workshop invitations. The workshop summary mentioned earlier can be included in the invitation. You do not need to send out the detailed agenda—that is only for the Facilitator and maybe the Project Manager and Documenter.

The scheduling of the workshops may have an impact on the project schedule. If the workshops are being scheduled at the beginning of the project, the project schedule can be fitted around the workshops. In other cases it may be necessary to revise the project schedule to include the workshop dates.

Other arrangements for the room include:
• flip charts and pens
• white board and pens (electronic whiteboards are great)
• refreshments

You also need to select the Documenter for the workshop. This will normally be a member of the project team.

Running the workshop
Running the workshop means following the detailed agenda you have prepared in the workshop.

One of the most important skills of a Facilitator is ‘active listening’. This means re-phrasing what somebody says to make sure that you and everyone else understands. (It doesn’t mean repeating the words back to person verbatim.) Do not assume that everyone understands what everyone else says.

It is unlikely that everything will go as planned, unless you are repeating a workshop exactly as you have run it before. Be prepared to adjust your agenda as the workshop progresses. Try to do this at breaks if possible. The most common things that cause changes to the prepared agenda are:

Agenda steps take more or less time than planned
Taking less time than planned is great—everyone goes home early. If it is taking longer than planned you need to decide:
• to press on with the step that is taking so long because it is essential
• time-box the rest of the agenda
• cut steps out of the agenda
• arrange a follow-on workshop to complete the work
• The participants refuse to do a step or want to do something else

It’s difficult to lead a group that doesn’t want to work the way you’ve planned it. Stick with your planned approach if possible. If you change on the fly, you are in a precarious position—you’ve had no time to prepare this new approach.

A couple of useful techniques to use in the workshop are:

Parking Lot
The parking lot is a place to ‘park’ issues that cannot be resolved in the workshop in a timely manner. It is a great help in moving the workshop along. Once an item is placed on the Parking Lot, there should be no other discussion on the issue. Set up a flip chart headed up ‘Parking Lot’. When you, or one of the participants, feel that you have discussed a topic for long enough, write the issue (one line) on the flip chart and move on. Don’t peel off these pages, just keep turning them over. At the end of the workshop you should have an agenda step to review the Parking Lot to decide what, if any, action needs to be taken to resolve each issue.

Ground Rules
It is useful to agree a set of Ground Rules with the participants at the start of the workshop. During the workshop, if anyone steps out of line, you, or maybe another participant, can remind the offender of the Ground Rules.

Possible Ground Rules are:
• one conversation
• one topic at a time
• park issues for later resolution
• explained above
• facilitator calls time-outs and breaks
• be on time
• silence is agreement
• no wordsmithing (participants should not be concerned over the exact wording
• used by the facilitator in writing on the charts.
• beat it to death (participants are allowed to tell other participants that they are
• ‘beating the topic to death’. We move on after this).
• facilitator never says, “I think” (this is really difficult for the Facilitator and is only
• appropriate if you are being neutral).
• leave your normal work at the door
• leave your ego at the door
• turn off cell phones and pagers (Very important these days—for the Facilitator as well).
• listen to others
• all participants are equal (May not always be true—don’t pretend if this is not true).
• respect the views of others

Completing and distributing the workshop deliverables
• Once the workshop is complete, there are a number of additional activities that need to
• be carried out to ensure that the results of the workshop are utilized properly on the project.
• The workshop deliverables will be ‘raw’ to some extent. It will at least require ‘tidying up’,
• but may require more work than this.
• There may be some ‘Parking Lot’ issues that need to be resolved after the workshop, and
• the resolutions incorporated into the workshop deliverables.
• It may be necessary to re-convene the workshop participants to review and agree
• the deliverables.
• The workshop deliverables need to be incorporated into the overall project deliverables.

Roles
Facilitator
Participants
Documenter
Project Manager
Other roles

Facilitator
The Facilitator is responsible for designing the workshop process and carrying this process out in the workshop. There are several approaches a Facilitator may take:

1. Leading Facilitator
This approach is appropriate in a situation where a project team member (Project Manager, Business Analyst) is the facilitator and the team wants to suggest an approach or steer the participants to a solution. This approach can be risky—the participants might reject the ideas or resent being ‘told the answers’. However, as consultants, especially in strategy projects, the client is often looking for us to do just that.

2. Neutral Facilitator
In this approach, the Facilitator does not attempt to contribute to the material being discussed but is truly facilitating a discussion or a process.

3. Consulting Facilitator
In this approach, the facilitator acts as a consultant in addition to facilitating the workshop. The Facilitator may draw conclusions, suggest solutions, etc.

Participants
Participants are responsible for the content of the workshop Deliverables. Participants will usually be business people and project team members. Sometimes it will be necessary to ask specialists to participate in workshops (e.g., technical support staff for a technically-oriented workshop)

The number of participants would be in the range 4 to 10. You are inviting the participants because of their knowledge and interest in a subject area and they should have enough time to make their contributions. In a 4-hour workshop with 10 people, each participant has, on average, 24 minutes to speak. This isn’t very long, and this calculation doesn’t allow for the Facilitator to speak. So, when there are more participants, there is less contribution per person. It is also much harder for the Facilitator to manage a larger group.

Documenter
The documenter is responsible for recording the results of the workshop, either manually or by using a CASE tool or other computer software in an organized, consistent manner. The Documenter should not edit, paraphrase, or make the documentation his/her own. The Documenter must maintain an objective and neutral role throughout the workshop. Any judgment/evaluation of the data, or bias, may lead to a distorted record of the group’s ideas. The Documenter also supports the Facilitator in terms of the detailed logistics of running the workshop (e.g., managing flip charts and other materials). During a workshop, the ideas, decisions, etc. that the participants discuss are recorded in front of the group by the Facilitator. This is usually on a flip chart or whiteboard. The Documenter’s job is to make an accurate record of this information. It is not to take personal notes or minutes for the workshop. The reason for this is that the group only sees what is in front of them and only agrees what they have seen.

Project Manager
What is the role of the Project Manager in a JAD workshop? One possibility is that the Project Manager is the Facilitator. While this may be tempting (especially if the Project Manager is an experienced Facilitator), in practice, it restricts the input of the Project Manager. It is better for the Project Manager to be a participant in the workshop with the ability to make an equal contribution to the discussions.

The Project Manager should be closely involved with planning the workshop. This includes selecting the participants and describing the deliverables that are expected from the workshop. The Facilitator is really working for the Project Manager. There are often situations in a workshop where the Facilitator needs to ask the Project Manager for a decision relating to the project, such as whether the subject being discussed is within the project scope.

Other Roles
It is often useful to have a senior client manager kick-off the workshop, or perhaps to encourage participants to agree to attend. There are often a lot of people who want to ‘participate’ in a workshop, but who don’t really have a contribution to make—they just want to be there to hear what is said. A way of dealing with this is to have ‘Observers’. An Observer can look and listen, but is not allowed to say anything. This is a very difficult role for most people to play, and it is easy for Observers to ‘creep’ into the group discussion. Best advice—only include Observers if you have to.

Benefits
• Improves the communication between business users and the project team
• Enables rapid development
• Improves quality of deliverables—quality assurance of deliverable is ‘built-in’ to a large extent

Interactions with Other Best Practices
JAD can be applied to several Best Practices including:
• Use Case Analysis
• Workflow Modeling
• Business Object Modeling

Keys to Success in using JAD
Planning, having the right participants and an experienced Facilitator are the keys to success with JAD.

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