QuestionThe last time I managed a project, it seemed like it took forever to get all of the major stakeholders to agree on what we were doing. The process of gaining approval obviously had value since there were some major differences of opinion on what the project was to accomplish. However, the time required to get everyone’s acceptance was unacceptable.
I have subsequently read about a JAD technique that might help us get through this process faster. What can you tell me about it, and is it something that can be used on a project?
Answer
You’re right. There is a specific technique (or set of techniques) for more rapidly gaining a consensus from a group of individuals. The technique is called joint application development, or JAD. Judging by its name, you might think that this technique only applies to developing software, but that’s not the case. Although I don’t know the origin of the term, the JAD technique can be applied to a wide variety of areas where consensus is needed. This includes gathering business requirements, creating a project work plan, building a quality management plan, and so on. In particular, based on your question, the technique can be applied to help define a project.
The normal way
Let’s briefly recap how you normally define a project. First, you might talk to your manager and the project sponsor. They give you enough information so that you can start to talk to other interested stakeholders. You begin to write a project definition and realize you don’t have all the information you need, so you make a second round of talking to people to ask clarifying questions. You create a draft project definition that is circulated back to these stakeholders. Many of them read the document and say fine, but some will have questions, or they may disagree with some of the content. The disagreements must be taken back to the sponsor for resolution, and perhaps another round of discussions takes place to provide further clarification and to build a consensus.
Depending on how controversial the project is, you may get a consensus on the project definition quickly, or it may take quite a long time. It appears, from your question, that you have already become familiar with the “quite a long time” process.
Enter the JAD session
The purpose of the JAD session is to dramatically reduce the timeframe required to complete a deliverable where consensus is required. Notice that I did not say it would dramatically reduce the cost. Depending on how the JAD is implemented, it may, in fact, cost more than the traditional methods. However, in many cases, your management and sponsor are willing to pay more for a process that takes much less time.
How dramatic could the time savings be? Very dramatic. As an example, the time required to produce the project definition might be reduced from six weeks to one week, or perhaps even two days. So, this is not about reducing turnaround time by 10 percent. JAD sessions can result in dramatic improvements—maybe 75 percent, 80 percent, 90 percent, or higher.
The JAD process
The key concept of a JAD session is that you get all of the major decision makers, stakeholders, and knowledge providers into one place all at the same time. The dramatic reduction in time comes from removing the time required to move information from person to person. If a stakeholder has a question about scope, he or she can ask it in the context of the JAD session. The people required to answer the question are in the room and can answer the question immediately—there is no time delay and no misrepresenting the question. A two-week process of getting a question clarified and answered can instead take place in 10 minutes, because all of the right people are there at the same time.
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