JAD and Prototyping in System Requirements
Uploaded by
Christine Corpuz GuzmanJAD and Prototyping in System Requirements
Uploaded by
Christine Corpuz GuzmanGroup Name: CASTRO-GUZMAN Date: May 8, 2021
Name of Students: 1) Daren Joy M. Castro 2) Ma. Christine C. Guzman
Module 5–Determining System Requirements
CASE PROBLEMS
1. Pine Valley Furniture
a) Because Pete Polovich is organizing a JAD session for the first time, he would like
to locate additional information about organizing and conducting a JAD session.
Find information on JAD on the Web, and provide Pete with several
recommendations for conducting and organizing a JAD session.
The textbook mentions:
• Bluebird Enterprises, Inc. ([Link]
• Hathaway and Associates, Inc. ([Link]
• Both of these sites are good sources of information about JAD.
Two additional sources of information are:
• Creative Data, Inc. ([Link] and
• Carolla Development, Inc. ([Link]
Recommendations for conducting and organizing a JAD session:
Pre-Workshop Activities
Good preparation is key to success. There is between one and three weeks of work
required to prepare for a workshop. That preparation is required to:1) Identify project
objectives and limitations 2) Identify critical success factors. 3) Define project
deliverables 4) Define the schedule of workshop activities5) Select the participants6)
Prepare the workshop material 7) Organize workshop activities and exercises. 8) Prepare,
inform, and educate the workshop participants 9) Coordinate workshop logistics
Post-Workshop Activities
After the workshop, it is important to address and resolve the open issues generated
by the workshop. A three-day workshop typically generates about 20 open issues, most of
which are business issues. It is critical to get these issues out on the table for discussion
and resolution before any codes written
b) When conducting your interviews, what guidelines should you follow?
There should be: 1) Background work on company, 2) Asking for introductory memo,
3) planning the interview, 4) initial conversation, 5) cultural differences, 6) tape
recorders vs. confidentiality 5) being neutral, 6) seeking diverse views, 7) listening and
taking notes, and 8) reviewing these notes, 9) how to dress, 10) Report back on
summary.
c) As part of the requirements determination process, what business documents
should be reviewed?
The analyst should try to obtain access to a variety of business documents. It
includes 1) Pine Valley’s mission statement, 2) Existing systems manuals (if any) 3)
business plans, 4) design documents (if any) 5) an organization chart, 6) business policy
manuals, 7) minutes of meetings, 8) job descriptions, and 9) Internal and external
correspondence. Because the Customer Tracking System is a new system, reports from
a prior organizational study would not be available.
d) Is prototyping an appropriate requirements determination method for this
project?
Prototyping can be used during requirements determination to collect user
requirements and present them in the form of a working system prototype. It is an
appropriate requirements determination method. When designing the new system’s
forms and reports, prototyping will be of definite benefit.
During requirements determination, prototyping is used to collect user
requirements and present them in the form of a working system prototype. Users can
look at, play with, and compare the prototype to their system requirements. Analysts
can then adjust the prototype to better fit what the users have in mind.
Prototyping is better than traditional methods where system requirements are not
well understood, where few users that are stakeholders are involved, where designs
may be complex, where there have been past communication problems, and were the
necessary tools are readily available.
Prototyping may be worse than traditional methods where formal requirements are
not documented, where prototypes become idiosyncratic to the initial user, where issues
of data sharing and integration with other systems are ignored, and where SDLC checks
are bypassed.
2. Hoosier Burger
a) Assume you are preparing the customer satisfaction questionnaire. What types of
questions would you include? Prepare five questions that you would ask.
Questions should be open-ended and related to customer needs, satisfaction, and system
functionality. In addition, suitable participants for asking the questions must be selected. Five
questions for the participants are as follows:
1. How are the long queues of customers dealt with?
2. Are the employees satisfied with the facilities provided?
3. What is the most popular/common order that a customer place?
4. How many customers visit you on a weekly basis?
5. What facilities are lacking in the company that should be added?
b) What types of questions would you ask the waiters? What types of questions would
you ask the cooks? Prepare five questions that you would ask each group.
These questionnaires help in determining customer needs and issues encountered while
using the new method. Different types of questionnaires must be prepared for each type of staff.
Questions to ask from the waiters are as follows:
1. How are services handled when a large number of customers are present at the same time?
2. Are the wages provided sufficient?
3. Are working hours flexible?
4. What extra services are offered?
5. Is the number of staff hired sufficient during rush hour?
Questions to ask from the cook are as follows:
1. What are the most popular/common customer orders?
2. How are different cooks managed?
3. What services or facilities are lacking and should be added to the system?
4. What are the most commonly used ingredients?
5. Are the most commonly used ingredients still in stock or not?
c) What types of documents are you likely to obtain for further study? What types
of documents will most likely not be available? Why?
Answer:
The system requirement determination method is used to discover all new features that new
and developing systems must have.
Requirements for the new system are collected after consulting with new users about issues
they are experiencing or features that are lacking in the existing system. Documents such as a cash
register or an invoice may be available in a company as daily management tasks are completed.
Given the fact that Hoosier Burger is an automated food ordering system, it may have a current
system document in addition to the other documents. Since only daily management tasks are
performed, some documents such as the mission statement and job description may be unavailable.
d) What modern requirements determination methods are appropriate for this
project?
Since traditional methods were mostly inefficient when collecting information for
requirement determination, new methods were needed for information collection.
JAD and the Prototyping approach are two suitable modern approaches for requirement
determination. Multiple analysis sessions involving the key people of the system are held in the
Joint Application Development (JAD) method. Old system developers, users, new system
developers, administrators, and so on are key people. During these sessions, each key person
expresses their perspective on both the old and new systems. After these sessions, analysts are able
to summarize existing system problems, new system requirements, and areas of conflict. The
prototyping method converts initially collected requirements into physical systems with minimal
functionality to represent how the system appears to users. Users are able to change their
requirements if they are dissatisfied with the prototype that has been created and returned to the
user for review; this process is repeated until the user accepts the prototype.
Common questions
Powered by AIWhen choosing participants for a JAD session, consider the inclusion of individuals who represent a variety of perspectives such as users, system developers, and administrators. Participants should have knowledge about current system issues, be invested in the system's outcome, and contribute constructively to discussions. Ensuring balanced and comprehensive representation can enhance the quality and acceptance of the system requirements developed during the session .
Prototyping is more suitable when system requirements are not well understood, few stakeholders are involved, designs are complex, and there are past communication issues. It facilitates early user involvement, allowing adjustments based on user feedback. However, drawbacks include the risk of not documenting formal requirements, creating prototypes too tailored to initial user feedback that might not generalize, ignoring data sharing and integration issues, and bypassing standard SDLC checks .
JAD involves collaborative workshops that elicit input from key stakeholders such as developers, users, and administrators, which helps in summarizing system problems and requirements from multiple perspectives. Prototyping involves creating functional system models that allow users to interact with and provide feedback, facilitating iterative requirement refinement. Both methods emphasize early and ongoing stakeholder involvement, which is central to accurately capturing and refining system requirements .
Effective interviews should involve thorough background research on the company, planning the interview, establishing initial conversation, and understanding cultural differences. It's crucial to address confidentiality issues, maintain neutrality, seek diverse views, listen actively, take notes, review notes post-interview, dress appropriately, and provide a summary report .
Resolving open issues from a JAD workshop before coding is critical to ensure that all identified system requirements and concerns are addressed, reducing the risk of costly rework or system failures due to overlooked requirements. Ignoring this step could result in a system that does not meet user needs, harbors unresolved conflicts, or requires significant adjustments post-development, ultimately impacting project timelines and budgets .
The effectiveness of a prototype can be evaluated by assessing how well it gathers accurate user requirements, facilitates communication among stakeholders, and validates design assumptions. Effectiveness is observed through user feedback during interactive sessions, changes in user requirements over iterations, and alignment of the prototype with initial project goals. A successful prototype should lead to fewer misunderstandings and increase stakeholder satisfaction and buy-in .
The pre-workshop activities for a JAD session include identifying project objectives and limitations, critical success factors, and project deliverables. It also involves defining the workshop schedule, selecting participants, preparing the workshop materials, organizing activities and exercises, preparing and educating participants, and coordinating logistics .
Excluding key business documents might lead to an incomplete understanding of the organizational context and misaligned system requirements. This could result in a system that fails to address existing problems, misses critical business objectives, or does not integrate well with current processes, potentially leading to the system's rejection by users .
Reviewing business documents is crucial as it provides insights into existing systems, business practices, and organizational goals, serving as critical reference points for determining new system requirements. Documents to prioritize include mission statements, system manuals, business plans, design documents, organization charts, policy manuals, meeting minutes, job descriptions, and internal/external correspondence .
A JAD session is specifically structured to collaborate on system development involving stakeholders from various sectors, focusing on identifying requirements and resolving system-related issues. It requires extensive pre-workshop preparation, structured workshop activities, and post-workshop follow-ups to resolve open issues. This is in contrast to typical business meetings which might not have as detailed an agenda focusing on development objectives and rarely involve the same intensive level of cross-departmental participation and follow-up .