From JAD, JAR, and JADr to JRP

Business Analyst Training is a Process — Not an Event

Many of you may not be aware of this, but the Requirements Solutions Group is not just a training company. Building business analysts is not just a matter of going in to do a couple of days of training and then sailing off into the sunset on our high horse (or however it is we are traveling these days). Building business analysts is hard work, but that is our calling and we are willing to go the extra mile to get the job done right. It requires training and follow-on consulting to make sure that the concepts taught in the classroom are transferred to the workplace. We also know that the only way for us to stay current in the evolving discipline called business analysis is to get out there and keep doing the job we love.

Reality Is the Best Teacher

Because seeing is believing, consulting is also one of the most successful and cost–effective skills–transfer models available. RSG offers consulting primarily in the form of JRP (Joint Requirements Planning) sessions. You might be unfamiliar with the term JRP. RSG has been using the acronym JADr (Joint Applications Delivery — Requirements) but recent research on the "www" indicates that the term JRP has won the day. It is used more often on the web than any of the competing acronyms (JAR — Joint Application Requirements, RDS — Requirements Discovery Sessions, etc.). It identifies requirements elicitation sessions that follow the principles of JAD (Joint Application Design) that were established in the 80’s and 90’s. In the interest of effective communication (a goal to which we forever ascribe), we bow to the will of the people. Besides, by pronouncing it "Jirp" instead of "J–R–P", it sounds like a whole lot more fun. We have recently updated our website to replace the acronym JADr with the more widely accepted JRP.

(On a side note, we also made a ton of other changes to our consulting pages, so, check out http://www.requirementssolutions.com/JAD_Sessions.html and follow the links to learn a whole lot more about this phenomenal concept.)

Productivity and the Learning Curve

When you learn a new (read better) way of doing something, the first thing happens is that your productivity drops. This is what is known in the training world as the "learning curve". The way it looks is illustrated on the graph below. Actually, when you think about it, it is logical. After all, while you are learning a new way of doing anything, you have to stop and think about it instead of "following you instincts" and doing things the way you did before. Thinking costs time, ergo your productivity drops.

Figure 1 Productivity Learning Curve

Business analysts who attend our training sessions consistently comment on how much they learned during the session. When they attend a JRP session, they are amazed at how much they did not learn in the classroom. These are the kinds of things that can only be picked up by observing. Obviously, the main purpose of a JRP session is not to teach but to gather requirements from the subject matter experts and managers. A positive side effect of the sessions is that your analysts get to watch our experts apply the techniques they teach. Actually seeing the expert in action shortens the learning curve significantly. (On the other hand, it can really scare the living bejeezus out of a novice causing them to change their career choice in a hurry. Seriously, we have had that happen!)

The JRP/Training Hybrid

The classic JRP model is to get a group of subject matter experts (SMEs) together with a group of analysts for a series of days (preferably off-site). Add a session facilitator to lead the group and a requirements analyst to capture the outcome interactively and you have a super productive group. This group’s sole job for the designated length of time is to define the business needs in the form of business requirements. Anyone involved in this JRP session should be unavailable for their normal work during this time. That implies that they are out all day, every day, for as long as the session lasts. By the way, if you want to go Agile, a JRP session is an agile approach to getting high-level business requirements in a hurry to kick-start an agile development process.

Let’s face it. In the current world, scheduling a group of SMEs offsite for several days to gather requirements for an IT project has all the makings of a Mission Impossible. One possible solution might be to schedule your JRP session for half days, either mornings or afternoons. Of course, if you are bringing external experts (i.e., us) in to do the facilitation, you would face a serious underutilization issue if we only worked half the time. One solution is to offer a half day of training followed by a half day of facilitation. That way, students get to learn about a technique in the morning and then experience the application of that technique in the afternoon. This can be the best of both worlds. It combines the training element with the consulting element and drastically shortens the learning curve.

Why Not Just Do It?

We have applied this approach for customers in the past and discovered that the concept is extremely powerful and popular. Why is it not used more often? The major stumbling block, believe it or not, is budgeting. Consulting and training services are most often paid for from different budgets and getting the two groups responsible for these budgets to agree on how to fund a hybrid has proven to be our biggest obstacle. If you organization can solve that problem, we can do some magic. Remember, training is not a one-time event. It is a process that occurs over time, hence the learning curve. If you reduce the time it takes to get a time-saving technique into your workflow, you save bucks. That is the bottom line.

Author: Tom Hathaway
Managing Partner
Requirements Solutions Group, LLC

Will It Work for You?

We recognize that some projects are better candidates for JRP sessions than others. In a future article, I may reveal some of the secret things we do to determine whether your project fits the profile. In the meantime, if you would like a free evaluation, call us or go to http://www.requirementssolutions.com/RequirementsGathering_JAD.html and submit the form. We will be glad to guide you through the training process.

Managing Partner
Requirements Solutions Group, LLC.