Free Custom «Joint Application Design» Essay Paper

On the other hand, analysis of documents, which are the secondary documents, involves inspecting of the document when an existing system of developing the software becomes formalized. The data is reliable, and the information, which is usually gathered, is qualitative.

This approach is a potent source of information, because it deals with facts from other sources relating to the software development problems or benefits. However, it is time consuming and the data collected may not be immediately usable.

Novel Approaches to Requirements Analysis

A novel approach in requirement analysis of the software development is an approach that is new and does not resemble any formerly known approaches; for example; the traditional approaches. There are various novel approaches in requirement analysis in the software development and they are mainly referred to as the modern requirement determination methods. These approaches are such as, JAD, prototyping and other advanced analysis of the system, like RAD and OOA. They are system analysis that is developed by different experts, and they get used to make sure users’ needs are met through the software development.

Joint Application Design (JAD)

A joint application design is a team-based approach, which defines the need for a new or altered information system or a product, which is the software in this case. It started in the late 1970s, and the first company to practice and implement them was the IBM.  The chief idea in a JAD is to bring together the main users of certain new or altered software to analyze them.  The structured session brings customers, designers and other experts together to plan on how the system should be analyzed. The main purpose of a JAD is to collect information on the product simultaneously from people involved in the system.  During the process, people combine in one place at one time allowing easy analysis; therefore, the analyst can see areas that agree and where there are conflicts. In JAD, participants are the JAD facilitator, end users, managers, sponsors, system analysts and scribe. The team may comprise of six to sixteen individuals who design the software, in this case the final product. Functional experts are the two third of the group members, and the other third are the system professionals. The session gets conducted in a place where people are working normally and a distinctive room. ( Davinson & Sloan School of management, 1993)

A facilitator who makes sure the participants remain focused runs the JAD session. The facilitator also makes sure the observers remain silent, and they adhere to JAD rules.  The users are involved in the project; therefore, they facilitate gathering user requirements and help in designing the process. Since the users of the software or the system are involved, it helps to resolve issues. The process is also effective, if the group decisions made by users from different areas are brought together. When the session ends, the result is a set of documents that shows working of the system relating to the product or the software. The result documents include the activity model, data model, data input and output.

Although the JAD is a reliable software analysis approach, it is time consuming and most of the experiment may not have a decent facilitator to involve the participants. In addition, some of the participants may dominate the workshop, while others will feel insecure about the whole project and be excluded during the decision-making. (Grady 2006)

Prototyping

Prototyping refers to exploring a product, which is the software development in this case before investing in it. Most software developers believe that the late usability data is at least ten times less than the early usability data. Prototype allows users to use an application that has not yet been fully constructed. The prototypes are mockups of an application. They help people to get an idea of what the fully produced product will look like. Therefore, its main purpose is to help the developer to get the feedback about the product from its users and the fundamental requirement that would develop a concrete and final product. ( Davinson & Sloan School of management, 1993)

This approach is used in a situation, whereby the developer is not aware of and does not understand the users’ requirements. The developer who had an earlier communication problem also uses it with its users and other stakeholders. Finally, when developing a prototyping, the developer should be a concern for the requirement determination method which is used to determine whether it is beneficial as an investment.

Comparison Between the Novel Approaches and the Traditional Approaches

In the requirement analysis, it is necessary to provide a successful foundation of a project. A formal requirement analysis should be attainable and verifiable, and to achieve, one cannot do it without the user input. (Grady 2006)

The traditional approaches are beneficial in collecting and gathering information to develop a system that is required; for example, the interviewing helps an IT professional to get a feedback about a product in an instant through the internet. Therefore, it is cheap, and does not consume a lot of time. On the other hand, a JAD is time consuming when compared to interviewing through the internet and might be costly for a firm to conduct the JAD sessions.

Traditional approaches are more suitable in small-scale projects than in large-scale projects. This is especially noted in the interviews and questionnaires, since they involved collection of necessary information to develop the system requirement. On the other hand, JAD involves the large-scale project, since it gathers detailed information on a product from different users in the JAD session.