In 1979, JAD was created.
"In 1979, Chuck Morris of IBM Raleigh, and Tony Crawford of IBM Canada, co-developed the formal JAD process."
In the late 1970's, Chuck Morris began developing the concepts behind facilitated requirements-gathering while working in Milwaukee as a system engineer for IBM. Chuck transferred to Raleigh, NC. He met Tony Crawford from IBM Canada and the two of them developed the formal Joint Application Design (JAD) process. Originally, JAD was created to help implement a system IBM was selling called COPICS (an early Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) system). In the late 1970's systems were not widely accepted by end users (there were no PC's or Macs). System Engineers needed to gather requirements for screen design and process design from people who had little or no understanding of computers - JAD was created to fill that need. Many of the roles for the JAD process were based on the book by Michael Doyle and David Straus, "How to Make Meetings Work".
In the 1980's, IBM Canada piloted the concept at Canadian International Paper 1. Chuck Morris and Tony Crawford began training others to become JAD Session Leaders. Tony implemented JAD at the IBM Canada office in Toronto and pushed to have it become a standard, training and certifying numerous Session Leaders across Canada. In the early 1980's, JAD became a popular topic at IBM's users group sessions, called GUIDE 2. JAD continued to evolve as Tony developed the JAD-Plan Agenda (a workshop for planning for the JAD workshops) and others developed variations, including Joint Application Requirements (JAR) workshops 3.
In 1983, Gary Rush was trained by Chuck Morris on this new concept - JAD. He helped implement JAD at numerous companies becoming a pioneer using JAD - facilitating JAD sessions and training others "how to" as well (while implementing a productivity program for the IT department at CNA where he worked). He was involved in using JAD for traditional systems as well as decision support and modeling systems. He started and co-managed the JAD project within GUIDE (an IBM users group) and was widely recognized as a leader in the movement towards Facilitated Application Specification Techniques for requirements gathering. He continued to practice as a JAD Session Leader, even publishing an article in Computerworld on December 24, 1984 entitled, "JAD Project Aids Design" 4.
In 1985, Gary Rush, Founder and CEO of MG Rush Systems, created and developed his own structured facilitation technique - FAST - Facilitated Application Specification Technique - and became widely recognized as a leader in the movement towards structured facilitation, transforming the facilitation industry. He wrote a facilitation "how to" manual - The FAST Session Leader Reference Manual - and developed training on "how to" be a Facilitator - FAST Session Leader Workshop class. While writing the manual, he wrote an article "A FAST Way to Define System Requirements" 5, describing the different variations of JAD. He sent the article to Computerworld and they published it. The Computerworld article came out on October 7, 1985, two weeks after Gary taught his first public FAST Session Leader Workshop class.
October 2015 - "Hi Gary, I took your class back in 2000 in Austin, Texas. I just wanted to tell you that of all the training classes I have taken in my career, yours shaped me the most. I have now facilitated hundreds of sessions, and I still pull out my FAST training binder to look for new ideas to create my agendas. I just wanted to thank you and tell you that you made a difference in my life!"
Stephanie (FAST Session Leader Workshop alumnus by Gary Rush, IAF CPF)
"Gary FoCuSeD™ on Structured Facilitation becoming the leading trainer for structured facilitation processes and having his facilitation technique used widely around the world."
In 2007, Gary created FoCuSeD™ – 1st Holistic Facilitation Technique - a revolution from FAST
In 2007, Gary Rush, IAF CPF | M, MG Rush Systems now MGR Consulting, created and developed FoCuSeD™ - Facilitation of Collaborative useful Solutions embracing Diversity - 1st Holistic Facilitation Technique - a revolution from FAST. FoCuSeD™ is a unique approach to structured facilitation and the state-of-the-art in structured facilitation methodology, with the introduction of The FoCuSeD™ Facilitator Academy. FoCuSeD™ is the most complete, most comprehensive, and most effective facilitation training class available; providing detailed training on the concepts of Holistic Facilitation. Until FoCuSeD™, facilitation techniques have been either about process or people skills. FoCuSeD™ contains a unique concept for developing structured agendas with an understanding of the two parallel developments occurring, "the workshop/meeting process and the emotional group cycle", that must be holistically planned to achieve useful solutions. It's time to get FoCuSeD™!
October 2015 - "Both Tenisha and Barry came back from your boot camp enthused about what they had learned. One resource said the transformation in Barry from the week before the training and the Monday after was, "like a completely different person. It was visible that something had changed". Take care!"
Lauren, Senior Business Analyst (FoCuSeD™ Facilitator Academy alumnus)
Gary Rush, IAF CPF | M is FoCuSeD™ on you!
FoCuSeD™ is the answer...
FoCuSeD™ 1st Holistic Facilitation Technique
The "How to" of FoCuSeD™
1"IBM Pilot JAD Experience at CIP Inc.", IBM Data Processor, Volume 12 Number 2, Lead Story, March 1982.
2"Joint Application Design", GUIDE International, Inc. GPP-147, Chicago, IL 1986.
3"JAD for Business Plans and Designs", by Roman Soltys and Anthony Crawford, The Facilitator, 1993.
4"JAD Project Aids Design", by Gary Rush, Computerworld, Volume 18 Number 52, pages 31 and 38, December 24, 1984.
5"A FAST Way to Define System Requirements", by Gary Rush, Computerworld, Volume 19 Number 40, In Depth pages ID/11 to ID/16 (pages 47 to 52), October 7, 1985.