Joint Application Development (JAD)

Definition - What does Joint Application Development (JAD) mean?

Joint application development (JAD) is a prototyping life cycle methodology that uses collaborative JAD workshops to depict the business viewpoint of end users (or customers) for effective solution development. In project development, the historical approach involves individual stakeholder interviews, which may not yield appropriate required output. JAD team workshops are geared toward summarizing and resolving development issues through a joint effort between developers and end users.

Techopedia explains Joint Application Development (JAD)

JAD process steps are as follows:

Designate executive sponsor and team members
Establish a JAD process orientation and requirements related to system, benefits, risks and problem solving
Prepare materials and software tools, schedule design sessions and conduct meetings
To complete the design session, the project scope and goals of the project are closely examined
Data and system requirements are identified to develop prototypes
Finalization, where a presentation is delivered to the executive sponsor; prototype is demonstrated and design documentation is completed. The entire JAD process is evaluated.

JAD enhances user participation, thereby improving specification quality. Projects adhering to the JAD methodology are critical for an organization's future success. JAD is applied to new systems, conversions, enhancements and purchasing. JAD workshops require several key process participants and occur over a three- to five-day period.