The program was launched in 1989 to take advantage of the graphical user interface introduced by the Macintosh operating systems.

[2] It was used mostly by scientists and engineers for design of experiments (DOE), quality and productivity support (Six Sigma), and reliability modeling.

[14] In 2005, data mining tools like a decision tree and neural net were added with version 5[15] as well as Linux support, which was later withdrawn in JMP 9.

[18] JMP 8 was released in 2009 with new drag-and-drop features and a 64-bit version to take advantage of advances in the Mac operating system.

[19] It also added a new user interface for building graphs, tools for choice experiments and support for Life Distributions.

[20] According to Scientific Computing, the software had improvements in "graphics, QA, ease-of-use, SAS integration and data management areas.

[24] In March 2012, version 10 made improvements in data mining, predictive analytics, and automated model building.

According to Scientific Computing, it added a new "Modeling Utilities" submenu of tools, performance improvements and new technical features for statistical analysis.

[28] Version 13.0 was released in September 2016 and introduced various improvements to reporting, ease-of-use and its handling of large data sets in memory.

[29][30] Version 14.0 was released in March 2018; new functionality included a Projects file management tool alongside the ability to use your own images as markers on your graph.

[41] The software's primary applications are for designed experiments and analyzing statistical data from industrial processes.

[46] JMP has a range of capabilities related to artificial intelligence and intuitive machine learning, including support for the creation of models that incorporate predictive modelling techniques such as neural networks, advanced regression, and decision tree learning.

Data tables, display elements and analyses are represented by objects in JSL that are manipulated with named messages.

Users may write JSL scripts to perform analyses and visualizations not available in the point-and-click interface or to automate a series of commands, such as weekly reports.

[53][54] JMP is used in the chemical industry for applications such as chemometrics,[55][56] and design of experiments, including response surface methodology.

[57][58] It is commonly used by chemical engineers as it contains multiple linear regression algorithms that work in tandem with its experimental design software.