WHAT IS A JAD SESSION

30 July 2025

Let's look at a definition and early history of JAD and SSADM, take a look at the roles of the participants and design a template agenda.

A JAD session - short for Joint Application Development session -  is a structured meeting that brings together business users, developers, and analysts to collaboratively define system requirements or design solutions. It’s particularly useful during the early stages of a software project.

JAD was a response to slow and error-prone traditional methods of gathering system requirements going way back to the 1970s, a methodology developed at IBM by Chuck Morris and Tony Crawford.

SSADM - Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method - dates back to the early 1980s. It was developed under contract to the UK government’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) as a standardised method for analysing and designing information systems.

By the mid 1990s, SSADM was on the way out due to the rise of RAD (Rapid Application Development), Agile, and object-oriented methods.

Object-Oriented Methods (OOM) are a way of designing and building software systems based on the concept of “objects”. These are self-contained units that combine data and behaviour, an approach mirrors the way we understand real-world entities like a car, a user, or a booking.. each has its own characteristics and actions.

An object has

- Attributes (data/state) — e.g., a User has a name, email, password.

- Methods (behaviour) — e.g., a User can log in, edit a profile, make a booking.

- Objects belong to classes, which are like blueprints for creating multiple similar objects. User gives hosts and guests.

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🔍 What Happens in a JAD Session?

• Facilitated workshop, often lasting several hours to a few days
• Focused on rapid consensus-building
• Participants work through use cases, data flows, interfaces, or UI mockups
• Typically led by a facilitator, with a scribe, users, and technical experts

Business users who know the domain

Analysts who map the requirements

Developers who understand system capabilities

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🧩 Typical Roles in a JAD Session

Role	Responsibility
Facilitator	Guides the discussion, ensures all voices are heard
Scribe	Takes detailed notes, records decisions and diagrams
Business Users	Share domain knowledge, describe real-world processes
Developers	Ask clarifying questions, assess technical feasibility
Analysts	Translate discussion into models, user stories, or specs

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✅ Advantages

• Cuts down on back-and-forth emails
• Produces a shared understanding of goals
• Captures accurate, detailed requirements
• Increases buy-in from all stakeholders

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📌 Use Case for Rentals

If rhe team were all co-located or online for a few hours, it would be possible to run a JAD session to:

• Finalise feature priorities for the MVP
• Walk through the booking flow from a user's perspective
• Agree on UI elements based on tester feedback
• Tackle tricky areas like deposit handling or ICal sync

Here's a JAD session agenda or template for the team.

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📌 JAD session agenda

- 🎯 Purpose: Finalise MVP features, align design + functionality Participants: • 

Facilitator: Project lead analyst • Developers: [Insert Names] • Testers / Users: [Insert Names]

Session Agenda:

1. Welcome + Goals Overview (10 min)

2. Review of Core User Flows (20 min)

3. Feature Prioritisation Discussion (20 min)

4. UI/UX Walkthrough with Feedback (20 min)

5. Issue Resolution and Open Questions (15 min)

6. Wrap-up + Action Plan (5 min)

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