template jad session facilitator guide

Joint Application Design (JAD) Session

[SYSTEM/APPLICATION NAME]

Facilitator’s Guide

JAD Session Facilitator’s guide

© 2009 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.

JAD Session Facilitator’s Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS

JOINT APPLICATION DESIGN SESSION OVERVIEW................................................................1

Meeting Input...................................................................................................................................... 1Meeting Deliverables........................................................................................................................... 1JAD Session Roles.............................................................................................................................. 1

PLANNING THE MEETING....................................................................................................3

JAD Room Layout............................................................................................................................... 3Meeting Check List.............................................................................................................................. 4Sample Email Invitation....................................................................................................................... 4

FACILITATING THE MEETING................................................................................................5

Meeting Ground Rules......................................................................................................................... 5

SAMPLE DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS CHECKLIST...................................................................6

JOINT APPLICATION DESIGN (JAD) SESSION SAMPLE AGENDA...........................................8

ISSUES LIST.......................................................................................................................9

COMMUNICATION MATRIX.................................................................................................10

TRAINING PLAN................................................................................................................11

Session Notes................................................................................................................12


JOINT APPLICATION DESIGN SESSION OVERVIEW

The Joint Application Design (JAD) session is designed to facilitate the basic project planning in a group environment and fast track the identification and resolution of remaining issues. The JAD session jumpstart the next phase of the effort by providing clear goals and agreement in a one meeting setting and with all key players and stakeholders, allowing each department to focus on their issues understanding the impacts to the entire program. Together, the group can define the full impact of decisions or actions, agree to the final outcome, and approve steps required for the program and the project teams to identify needs, assign resources, and address questions impacting multiple departments.

Serves as an early form of detailed design and technical planning Establishes clear communication and consensus Helps the team pull different perspectives into a common understanding Identifies what the customer and key stakeholders deem essential for success.

Meeting Input

This meeting is designed to be a group brain storming session. In order for this meeting to be as productive as possible, the following needs to be completed:

Draft high-level business process diagram

Draft high-level business process (using template)

These documents will be discussed in detail at the meeting.

Meeting Deliverables

Following are the deliverables that can come from a successful JAD session: Purpose Scope Objectives Business process Constraints Resource requirements Assumptions Open issues

JAD SESSION ROLES

Role Description

Facilitator Committed to the JAD process.

Must be impartial. It is recommended that this person is not part of the project team.

Experienced at facilitating meetings and leading groups.

Must be able to summarize discussions

Must be sensitive to group dynamics and organization politics

Must have a good understanding of data processing concepts if this is a systems development project

© 2009 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved. Page 1


Role Description

Scribe Ensures comments, issues, facts, decisions, questions are recorded (verbatim when possible).

Experienced with MS Word, Excel, etc.

Good analytical skills

Good working knowledge of the business area

Active participant – seeks clarity on wording meaning.

User Representative Must have knowledge, authority and experience on the system or process being discussed.

Good listener

IT Representative Contributes technical information

Good listener

Executive Sponsor Makes final decisions on issues



PLANNING THE MEETING

JAD Room Layout

It is important that the room used for the JAD session has:

Adequate room for all participants with space to write

Whiteboard or Flip Chart

Projector

Figure 1 - JAD Session Layout



Meeting Check List

Determine who should attend the meeting.

Schedule a conference room.

Arrange for any needed presentation equipment & supplies (e.g., laptop, projector, flip chart paper, markers)

Prepare agenda

Send out email invitation with agenda

Schedule and facilitate the advance team BP draft business process flow diagram and other materials to be used/distributed to session attendees.

Distribute advance reading materials at least 48 hours prior to the meeting (business process diagram and draft business process).

Send meeting reminder 24 hours before meeting. Remind attendees to do review any advance materials previously sent.

Assign a meeting scribe to take notes and manage the on-line presentation component; scribe should have workable copies of all the templates and draft materials for review.

Review room layout and audio/visual tools prior to the session.

Sample Email Invitation


You are invited to attend a joint business process review meeting for [business process name] on [date/time]. The purpose of the Joint Business Process Review Meeting is to facilitate the development of this business process in a group environment.

You are a key player in this business process and your input is important. Please review the attached business process documentation prior to this meeting to make the session more participative. This information will be discussed in detail at this meeting.


FACILITATING THE MEETING

MEETING GROUND RULES

Set cell phones to vibrate Do not use laptops for e-mail during sessions Participate actively throughout the sessions Provide direct and honest feedback Demonstrate mutual respect to all team members and differing points of view. Ask questions if you don’t understand. No excuse for not knowing what is going on! Provide sufficient background information when presenting or discussing a topic (i.e. issue, problem,

decision or acronyms). We will keep this flowing and informal, but limit absences to scheduled breaks We will be open and inquisitive – there is no bad question, and all team members have the right to

fully know and understand system processes. We will be creative and flexible when looking at how we might accomplish our objectives. We will be open to change. We will apply the “10 minute” rule to any discussion that is not moving forward, and use parking lots

to track issues. We will create a cooperative/supportive environment by finding ways to say “Yes” We allow the person speaking to have the floor, no side conversations IF YOU DON’T AGREE WITH ANYTHING, NOW IS THE TIME TO SPEAK!



SAMPLE DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS CHECKLIST

This checklist captures common elements that should be present in any design. It is presented during the Design Review process to stimulate thought, guide brainstorming, and to ensure the design being outlined contains all proper design considerations. As the project architecture, system, and application design is being reviewed, assess the design considerations that apply to your subject matter expertise and business/technical needs:

General

Does the design support both product and project goals? Is the design feasible from a technology, cost, and schedule standpoint? Have known design risks been identified, analyzed, and planned for or mitigated? Are the methodologies, notations, etc. used to create and capture the design appropriate? If possible, were proven past designs reused? Does the design support proceeding to the next development step? Have proper fallback consideration been made?

Design Considerations

Does the design have conceptual integrity (i.e., does the whole design tie together)? Can the design be implemented within technology and environmental constraints? Does the design use standard techniques and avoid exotic, hard-to-understand elements? Is the design unjustifiably complex? Is the design lean (i.e., are all of its parts strictly necessary)? Does the design create reusable components if appropriate? Will the design be easy to port to another environment if appropriate? Does the design allow for scalability? Are all time-critical functions identified, and timing criteria specified for them? Are the hardware environment completely defined, including engineering change levels and

constraints? Are the pre-requisite and co-requisite software and firmware clearly identified, including

release levels and constraints? Is each event/activity verifiable by testing, demonstration, review, or analysis?

Requirements Traceability

Does the design address all issues from the requirements? Does the design add features or functionality, which was not specified by the requirements

(i.e., are all parts of the design traceable back to requirements)? If appropriate, has requirements coverage been documented with a completed requirements

traceability matrix?

Completeness

Are all of the assumptions, constraints, design decisions, and dependencies documented? Have all reasonable alternative designs been considered, including not automating some

processes in software? Have all goals, tradeoffs, and decisions been described? Has the Risk Plan been modified with any new risks posed by the design? Have all interfacing systems been identified? Are the error recovery and backup requirements completely defined? Have the infrastructure e.g. backup, recovery, checkpoints been addressed?

Consistency

Is the design consistent with its upstream and downstream artifacts?



Does the design adequately address issues that were identified and deferred at previous upstream levels?

Is the design consistent with related artifacts (i.e., other modules, designs, etc.)? Is the design consistent with the development and operating environments?

Performance/Reliability

Are all performance attributes, assumptions, and constraints clearly defined? If appropriate, are there justifications for design performance (i.e., prototyping critical areas or

reusing an existing design proven in the same context)?

Capacity Planning

Does the design improve productivity? Is scalability development into the plan and is maintainable? Is Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) controlled or reduced?

Maintainability

Does the design allow for ease of maintenance? If reusable parts of other designs are being used, has their effect on design and integration

been stated? Does the design resist erosion in the correctness of its content over time?

Compliance

Does the design follow all standards necessary for the system? (i.e., date standards) Have legal/regulatory requirements been assessed and accounted for?

Security

Are all security considerations properly specified?

Modeling and Design Views

When appropriate, are there multiple, consistent, models and/or views that represent the design (i.e., static vs. dynamic)?

Where there are multiple models of the software (i.e., static and dynamic) are those models consistent with each other?

Comments/Notes:



JOINT APPLICATION DESIGN (JAD) SESSION SAMPLE AGENDA

Agenda and Meeting Report

Meeting Purpose:Facilitator:Scribe:Meeting Details: Date:

Time: Location:

Attendees: = present, = planned absence, ○ = not present, = conference call; use bold for names of Decision Makers

Advance Pre-reading Materials:

Meeting Topics Reference Led By Time

Introduction Introductions of everyone in

attendance Introduction to the JAD process

Facilitator

Project Overview Facilitator

Design and Planning Brainstorming:

All

Review and recap issues and action items: Assign action items as appropriate

Facilitator

Summarize and Close


[System/Application Name] JAD Session


ISSUES LIST

Business Process: Facilitator: Process Owner: Last Updated:

Issue Priority Assigned Date Action Entered Entered DateCategory ID Issue Name Description of Issue (H/M/L) To Needed Taken Date By Status Closed

COMMUNICATION MATRIX



Document When How Recipient Recipient Recipient Recipient Recipient Recipient

Use this template to identify any communications that need to occur as a result of review session. Examples could be:

A stakeholder was missed that has critical input; they should be sent the completed BP document via e-mail and asked to review and comment,

A business function was identified as being reliant on output of the BP; the function owner should be walked through the process flow diagram in a meeting so that they see changes due to updated BP to get confirmation no additional impacts exist.



TRAINING PLAN

Training Goal and Purpose:

Training Components

BudgetTarget

Audience & Size

Message ContentDistribution

MethodTiming Location Requirements Owner/s Status1

Use this template to record any impacts to training/training materials that are identified as a result of review session. Examples could be:

New stakeholders or involved parties are identified as a result of the process flow diagramming

Screen shots will change for known training materials



SESSION NOTES


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