What is JAD Session?

Business Analyst – JAD Session

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JAD sessions is also one of the important elicitation technique used by the Business Analyst to gather and understand the requirements.

Let us see what is JAD session, Joint Application Development (JAD) is a process used to collect business requirements while developing new Software systems for a organization. The goal of a JAD session is to gather in subject matter experts/Business analyst or IT specialist to bring out solutions.

A Business analyst is the one who interacts with the entire group or different teams and gathers the information/ Requirements, analyses it and brings out a document. He plays a very important role in JAD session.

Why JAD Sessions required?

Meeting and collaborating with Business and Technical team, JAD sessions are very common in Business Analysis Role.  Particularly when we are working in Agile Methodology.

For example, Technical team need some more clarity on Business Requirements then JAD sessions are required, in the same way if Business team needs more clarity on technology then JAD sessions are required.

Advantages :

• It helps to clarify the doubts: As all the required staked holders joins the session, all doubts will be clarified in this session. Based on the requirement, Business Analyst may conduct multiple sessions with all the required stake holders.
• Understand the requirements clearly: helps to understand the requirements clearly without any ambiguity.
• Provide solution with less time. As all the stakeholders joins in this session, will get the solutions for the problems (requirements related issues or problems) in the same session.
• Client satisfaction: As client is involved throughout the development process he knows what is happening and how project is going on. And as he gets the updates on project client also happy.
• Development team also happy as all the teams joined in meeting their doubts or issues get clarified by the SME’s or client without delay.
• It helps to faster delivery.
• JAD Session enables customers and developers to quickly come to an agreement on the basic scope.
• If any requirement is not feasible or any challenges to deliver the requirement, then they think for alternative approach. As the entire stake holders are part of this meeting, they can take a decisions accordingly.

Prerequisites:

• Business Analyst should have clear agenda before scheduling the JAD Session.
• Ensure to join all the required stakeholders (SME/ Dev.Team, internal and external stakeholders)
• Ensure to discussion is going on in right track.
• Ensure to conduct the meeting on stakeholders convenient time. As all the required teams to be joined in this meeting, it is the responsibility of organizer to collect all the teams and convenient time ensure to join all the teams in meeting.

Who all are participate?

Executive Sponsor

They normally are from higher positions, who can take decisions and drive the project.

Subject Matter Expert

These are the business users and subject experts. The subject matter experts are the backbone of the JAD session. They help to understand the functionality and they are required to fill the functionality gaps.

Facilitator

He/ She organizes the meeting; he/she identifies issues that can be solved as part of the meeting. The facilitator does not contribute information to the meeting.

Using for an iterative approach

FAQ’s

What is the purpose of a JAD session?

JAD is used as a technique for developing business system requirements and is typically used in the early stages of a systems development project. The purpose of JAD is to bring together MIS and end users in a structured workshop setting; to extract consensus based system requirements.

How do you perform a JAD session?

Define the JAD Session Objectives. The first task for the facilitator, together with the project leader and other key individuals, is to define the session objectives. …
Prepare for the Session. The facilitator has primary responsibility for JAD preparation. …
Conduct the JAD Session. …
Produce the Documents.