A procedure has been developed for bolting steel plates to the sides of existing reinforced concrete beams which can be used to increase the shear strength of beams, increase the flexural strength of beams with enhanced ductility or with only a small loss of ductility, and increase the stiffness of beams in order to reduce deflections and crack widths. It will be shown in this paper, through a qualitative analysis and through the results of testing eight large scale beams, that standard rigid plastic analysis techniques which are commonly used in the design of reinforced-concrete, steel, and composite steel and concrete beams cannot be used directly to design composite bolted-plated reinforced-concrete beams. In the companion paper, quantitative procedures will be used to adapt the standard rigid plastic analysis techniques for this relatively new form of retrofitting.