Joint Application Development (JAD)/ Discovery Sessions

JAD session, is a meeting where analysts meet with all stakeholders in one room to identify the system requirements. It is similar to focus groups, except that in here all stakeholders brought together in one meeting to agree on system requirements. JAD session has a potential risk of undiscovered clashes. Typically, stakeholders with more power can resolve any disagreement in their favor (their point of view), so it is essential for analyst to understand that and to be aware of any potential risks.
JAD session is intended to capture requirements from multiple stakeholders. Additional tools may be used within JAD session to help in modeling requirements, and therefore help stakeholders to understand requirements being captured. Tools can be any modeling tools like: use-case diagrams, activity diagrams, etc. Brainstorming can be used on ambiguous points, also prototyping can be used.

According to our referenced book [3], a good JAD session should contain between 5-10 participants, but can go up to 15-20 if needed. Participants can be categorized under the following types:

• The Facilitator: is the person who will guide the session and controls it. According to [3], this is the most important type to the success of JAD session. A good facilitator would stop any unneeded discussion, and will make sure that session is working as planned. Some of the facilitator roles are as the follows: timekeeper, mediator of conflicts, coordinate different groups within the session (if any), summarizing discussions.
• Business Analyst: the one who manage session goals, and should explain to the facilitator the goals up front.
• Scribe: the person who take notes during the meeting.
• User (customer).
• Domain expert (subject matter expert): sometimes it is important to bring some expertise in certain technology or certain thing needed to enrich meetings.
• Developer: this will bridge the gap between developer and customer needs.
• Sponsor: OF COURSE
• Observer(s): if you need to train someone about JAD session, we would call them observers. Note, that an observer could be someone who have an interest in attending the JAD session but will be minimally engaged.

JAD session can be conducted in four simple steps as shown in the figure below[3]:

• Establish Goals and Objectives: explain meeting goals and objectives to the participants.
• Prepare for the Session: making sure that participants are there, everything is in place, and all the needed tools are there.
• Conduct the session.
• Follow-up: to complete the documentation. Also, by presenting the results to the sponsor, and following up any issues, or outstanding issues.

In case of any non-agreed upon points, small JAD session might be assigned to some members of a smaller JAD session. JAD sessions will provide a good support from users since they were involved in the sessions, however as any other meeting types, JAD session can end up in generating conflicts between participants which makes it harder to be resolved.