Joint application design free course

JAD consists of five phases: defining the project

• scope
• purpose
• objectives
• open issues - a list of unresolved questions about the system
• assumptions - business implications such as target market and clients, impact of government regulations, etc.

The JAD leader interviews client and developer management to collect data for this definition. Also in this phase, a senior level manager is secured as the sponsor of the project.

researching the project

• existing or potential problems
• user interface requirements
• desired functionality

Developers are interviewed to find important design and performance issues.

• working environment
• work flow of the system - how information/data travels within the system
• reports and screens
• data elements - data that the system uses

preparing for the JAD session

• writes an outline for the session to make sure all issues discovered in the previous phases are addressed
• arranges the mechanics of the session

the JAD session

• to make sure all important issues are addressed
• to build consensus among participants as requirements are defined

documenting the results

• requirements document
  The requirements document is usually organized as follows to match the structure of the JAD session:
  • assumptions
  • work flow
  • data items
  • user interface
  • open issues
  • acceptance and use of JAD is increasing rapidly
  • a large number of organizations (IBM, Netmation, Process) either provide or offer training for JAD leaders and scribes
  • Barrett, Martin. Joint Application Design Simulation.
  • Davis, Alan. Software Requirements Analysis and Design. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1990.
  • Wood, Jane, and Denise Silver. Joint Application Design. John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1989.
  • Zahniser, Richard. Software Manager. IEEE Software, May 1990, pp. 109 - 110.