Statistics show that large software development projects fail at an alarming rate. The failure rate for large projects (around 1 million lines of code or more) is as high as 65%, according to studies performed by Capers Jones. Many other development projects fall into the WOMBAT category (a Waste Of Money, Brains, And Time). Much of this can be laid at the feet of project and customer/user management for failure to adequately define and establish the scope and requirements of the project. How do you know when you’ve captured all the requirements? How do you know that all the stakeholders have agreed on what has to be built? There is a way. It’s called Joint Application Development (JAD). JAD focuses on using a group for requirement capture and analysis. This presentation will describe how JAD can help.

Dr. Manny Baker (erbaker@swengcon.com) is president of Software Engineering Consultants, Inc., a consulting firm based in Los Angeles. Software Engineering Consultants is internationally recognized as a software engineering consulting and training services provider. Manny has nearly thirty years experience in software engineering and has been consulting since 1984. He is an authorized lead assessor for the CBA-IPI methodology. Manny is co-author (with Dr. Ron Kenett) of a recent book on software process improvement, "Software Process Quality: Management and Control", published by Marcel Dekker, Inc.

Myles Wakeham is a senior consultant with Tech Solutions Inc., a California-based firm providing software engineering consulting and systems development services. Originally from Australia, he has lived and worked in the United States for many years. He brings international experience from his work in industries as diverse as defense contracting, finance, biotechnology, manufacturing, accounting, and many others. Myles’ speciality is high-level systems analysis, with a focus on requirement definition and modeling. He has worked on over 75 different systems development projects over his career.