Get the Right Stuff, Fast Using Facilitated JAD* Workshops

In facilitated JAD (Joint Application Design) workshops, team members create, review, and complete important project deliverables. Teams that use these workshops slash delivery time and improve the quality of their software. That's because they define precise requirements and produce other high-quality documents to guide project planning and management.

This practical, in-depth workshop gives you the tools, techniques, and templates for designing and leading productive JAD workshops. You'll learn a process and a framework, from planning to post-workshop follow-up.

In this carefully designed and executed learning environment you'll actively learn through lecture, examples, discussions, exercises, review sessions, and a workshop simulation. The course is integrated with and complements Ellen Gottesdiener's industry-standard book Requirements by Collaboration: Workshops for Defining Needs.

This course is endorsed by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®) and aligns with the IIBA's Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®) applicable tasks and techniques. You'll earn 21 PDs (Professional Development hours) for initial certification or 21 CDUs (Continuing Development Units) by attending this course.

• Describe and explain key concepts
  • How facilitated workshops differ from classic meetings
  • Where "JAD" came from and how it has been adapted to current methods
  • Core competencies of the facilitator role
• Apply good practices for the 6 P's - purpose, participants, principles, products, place, and process to your own workshop topic
  • Write a crisp, clear workshop purpose statement and link it to the project's purpose
  • Identify the workshop sponsor and other participants
  • Select generic principles (ground rules) and create tailored principles
  • Identify the workshop's input and output products, leverage the patterns of multiple models, and define the navigation strategy to produce the output
  • Design requirements workshops that use subgroups to exploit the patterns of multiple models
  • Frame the workshop's agenda
  • Design a workshop activity using a template
  • Assess the group's development stage
  • Select an appropriate decision-making technique
• Assess your facilitation competencies and name several ways to develop your skills
• Identify key lessons from participating in a workshop simulation
• Reference techniques for designing and conducting various kinds of workshops
  • Strategic planning workshop
  • Chartering workshop
  • Business modeling workshop
  • Requirements workshop
  • Process improvement workshop
• Name key factors in facilitating complex workshops; select useful planning actions and tools 

• Effective facilitation and meeting techniques
• Joint Application Design (JAD)
• Business value of workshops

Part II Facilitation Essentials

1. Purpose

• Setting workshop goals

2. Participants

• Who should attend, how to engage them
• Roles and responsibilities

3. Principles

• Ground rules and interaction barriers
• Collaboration Pattern: Decide How to Decide

4. Products

• Intangibles and their flow
• Partitioning products within and across workshops

5. Place

• Location, logistics

6. Process

• The workshop agenda
• Collaboration patterns
• Management of group processes
• Ways to handle difficult participants

7. Summary

• Workshop process improvement
• Good practices

Part III Putting the Essentials to Work

1. Planning workshops

• Deliverables
• Design and process tips

2. Chartering workshops

• Deliverables
• Design and process tips

3. Business modeling workshops

• Deliverables
• Design and process tips

4. Requirements modeling workshops

• Deliverables (traditional and agile)
• Design and process tips

5. Process improvement workshops

• Deliverables (traditional and agile)
• Design and process tips

Part IV Workshop Patterns and Techniques

1. Collaboration patterns
2. Prioritizing requirements
3. Decision techniques
4. Diagram options