How do you know if your JAD is successful?

After creating Joint Application Development (JAD) team and managing it for any project to complete, you have to know if your JAD is successful or not. Here are some methods from which you will able to know about your JAD success.

By applying the positive answers for the following questions.

● Are your meetings well attended?

● Are all affected parties involved/aware of decisions being made?

● Did you solve the true underlying problem?

● Is your solution accepted and used by your clients?

● Is the solution available on time?

By applying the following Success Factors

● A clear purpose shared by all team members - the project charter

● A diverse team, representative of all areas effected by this project.

● Every person in the group has equal responsibility and decision making power.

● Every idea is valuable. Throughout the JAD, listen and acknowledge each idea and concern. Evaluating ideas during a brainstorming session will shut down the creative process. The best idea may never get said out of fear of being shot down.

● Participation by everyone is very important. Encourage quieter members to speak, they often have the best ideas. Don't allow 1 or 2 members to dominate. This is the facilitators responsibility as well as the whole teams' responsibility.

● Listen when others speak, don't interrupt or talk while others are talking (side conversations may have great ideas...we don't want to miss them).

● Maintain a parking lot to record important issues that are not within the scope of this project.

● Don't hold meetings, just to hold meetings. Only meet when there is something substantial to talk about.

● Don't let more than 3 or 4 weeks pass between meetings, you will loose momentum. Remember, each meeting is a motivation for the team to complete tasks assigned. It is no fun to come to a meeting and admit you didn't finish your task.

● Decisions are reached by consensus. We are here to create a win/win solution...win/lose solutions aren't good enough. You can reach consensus by giving everyone three options:

○ Thumbs up - I agree

○ Thumbs down - I disagree

○ Thumbs sideways - I can support this idea