JAD Facilitation

Understanding JAD

JAD stands for Joint Application Development or Joint Application Design. This is an associative system tool which brings several people of the business together in a sort of brainstorming session to tackle issues that influence and affect the business. This is carried out in the form of a workshop in which specialists of the particular line of business meet – they might be contributors directly through their execution of services or indirectly as knowledge workers. During the Joint Application Development, which might be conducted in several prolonged sessions, the intention is to pool in their opinions and knowledge to bring out solutions.

The major reason of the effectiveness of JAD as a tool for bringing solutions is because it allows various discussion groups to come out with their arguments, opinions and decisions about various issues in a workshop format. The interactive nature of the program is a prime reason of the success it brings in to the session.

IBM was the first company to introduce the concept of JAD into the corporate world, and when assured of the effectiveness of this method, other companies followed suit too. Today, it is widely used during the systems development lifecycle in the corporate world to create most effective solutions.

Role Of The JAD Facilitator

JAD is inconceivable without a facilitator. The facilitator is the sessions leader. He/she is the person who conducts the workshop and leads the discussion to fruition. The role of the JAD facilitator is like a host of a meeting or a conductor of an opera, without whom the entire assembly would go haywire.

The presence of proper professional JAD facilitation is extremely important. It is the facilitator who leads the workshop to arrive at workable solutions as soon as possible. It can be said that the entire success of JAD as a problem shooting tool is pegged in a major way on what kind of facilitation it gets.

JAD Facilitation – The Duties Involved

The JAD facilitator has a particular list of duties to perform before, during and after the workshop. These are the duties that become important for the proper conducting of the session.

• Selecting the people for the workshop – It is very important who is selected to the workshop. Sometimes, a handful of people who have good experience and knowledge are all is required to come to a very accurate decision. It is not wise to invite a lot of people, most of whom would not contribute anything to the proceedings, or would just get bogged down by the other speakers. The JAD facilitator must prepare a proper list of the invitees well in advance.


• Preparing people for the workshop – The JAD facilitator must notify the invitees in advance what the workshop is about. Passing pamphlets and brochures beforehand is good for people to make their preparations. However, when the workshop begins, the facilitator must speak about the objectives again in brief, because it is not necessary the printed material will really do the trick.


• Lead questions and issues – The facilitator is responsible for the way the workshop goes. Hence, it is necessary that he/she lead on questions so that people can follow them up and lay bare their opinions. Sometimes, people might like to sweep some contentious issues under the carpet. It's the facilitator's job to bring these issues out in the open too, and open them up for discussion.


• Define roles – Even while the workshop is going on, the facilitator must pick out the lead speakers and the followers. When these classifications are made, the facilitator might then egg on the speakers to voice their opinions first and then the others to follow up on them. The facilitator will also need to appoint people for taking notes.


• Concluding – The facilitator's primary quest at the beginning of the workshop must be to bring the workshop towards a conclusive end as soon as possible. However, this need not happen for several days on end. In that case, the JAD facilitator has to close each day's proceedings by summarizing the main points of the day's session and asking people to arrive for the next day, reflecting on what passed through the day and also to open up fresh ideas.

JAD Facilitation – The Qualities Required

Since so much depends on the JAD facilitation, it is extremely necessary that the facilitator have a particular set of qualities, most of which leadership qualities become prime. The following is a list of characteristics that defines a good JAD facilitator:-

• Leadership – The JAD facilitator must be a leader. It is his/her job to take people towards the correct process during the workshop. Sometimes, he/she will have to override some opinions and sometimes ask for elaborations. Such skills come only through the right kind of leadership qualities.


• Presence of mind – Several things in the workshop – little things, probably – will require the facilitator to have a presence of mind. This might also call for expert knowledge in conducting meetings. For example, the facilitator might need to expand some difficult idea with flowcharts and schematic diagrams on a chalkboard, and such things must be done impromptu. Then there are little decisions to make, such as when to keep the next workshop, should more people be invited, etc.


• Be a good orator – There are many places where the JAD facilitator will need to speak out clearly and concisely. At the very start, he/she will have to give an introduction about what the workshop is about and lay out the agenda. During the workshop, there will be several times when the facilitator will have to speak in clear loud voice, to override the voices of other people.


• A sense of time – The workshop is being conducted at business expense in one way or the other, so the time factor becomes very important. Without the facilitator, there would be definitely an impasse. But if the facilitator is present, things should move on smoothly, and fast.


• Affability – The facilitator needs to be approachable enough so that everyone in the workshop participates without fear. An intimidating facilitator will see only a handful of speakers, because the others would not be too keen of speaking in front of such a facilitator.


• Neutrality – This is a very important feature in the facilitator. The facilitator must be ignorant about the subject. This ensures that the facilitator is not prejudiced. A facilitator with knowledge on the subject will also have a particular idea, one way or the other, and he/she might lead the meeting towards his/her own idea. This could be lethal to the success of the JAD.