What Exactly Is Best Practice?

The term Best Practice is a commonly usedbetter way since these often represent significant
buzzword particularly in the consulting community. I aminvestment in intellectual capital and have developed
often asked by clients to advise them on the bestover time in a way that may best suit the organisation
practice in a particular area of their IT operation andin question.
delivery, however there is rarely a clear understandingWhen looking to identify best practices, we therefore
of what this actually entails.look for commonly accepted standards (where they
My favourite definition is that a best practice is aexist) and also at comparable organisations to
technique or methodology that, through experience anddetermine how a process can be performed.
research, has proven to reliably lead to a desired result.Some examples of relevant and potentially useful
An organisation which commits to using the beststandards in the Information Technology world include
practices in any field is a committing to using all thePMBOK and PRINCE2 (Project management), TSP
available knowledge and technology to ensurePSP, Agile, RUP, UML and BPMN (Software
success.development), ITIL and COBIT (Information technology
However, the challenges to using Best Practice aregovernance), SOA, J2EE, Web Services and TOGAF
significant.(Enterprise architecture), Six Sigma and CMMI
In my experience there is rarely a single best way to(Process improvement) and ADKAR (Change
undertake any given process and the effectivenessmanagement).
and efficiency of any solution depends on multipleOnce we have selected a proposed process, in
factors which may be different for each organisation.agreement with the relevant staff from within the
In addition, the fact that a way of doing things is widelyorganisation, we recommend that the new process be
adopted or accepted may not make it the bestpiloted with a small group or project to validate its
solution, but rather it may be a commonly adoptedoperation within the target business and to begin
compromise in terms of cost-benefit.creating organisational learning and experience which
In some cases the use of best practice can becan be leveraged to support the wider adoption.
detrimental to an organisation. Another company's wayFinally, for any process regardless of whether it is
of operating may be a failure in a different cultural orexisting or new, the most important step is to commit
organisational environment. Rigorous adherence toto ongoing evolution and improvement using tools such
best practice standards can serve to limitas Six Sigma to guide the future development.
organisational improvement and innovation.Ultimately, the very best practices are simply those
Furthermore, it is important that current processes andwhich operate efficiently and effectively and add value
procedures are not simply discarded in a search for ato your specific business operations.