I have been asked to write a Best Practice and have never written one before. I am looking for a template as a place to start and any information that will help me understand the purpose of writting a best practice, what it includes, etc. Thank you for considering my request. Saving Changes...
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Russell GeakeProject Management Consultant| Deciduous Partners LtdLostwithiel, Cornwall, United Kingdom
hi - first question, is this for a mainly internal audience (your department or company only) or part of a wider network of users (e.g. professional forum). I am going to make an assumption that it would be internal.
First thing to do will always be a quick internet search on existing best practices...you may find that some formats are ideal for your situation. I would suggest looking carefully at what is necessary, and make sure that you are confident that what you are about to write is definitely the "best practice"...you don't want to put in effort to find it re-written 2, 3 or 6 months later...the problem then is how do you know that you have acheived a best practice.
Define the problem, identify issues within current practices, use examples of these in your existing scenario and then create the best practice as a standard - look for common and special cases...does somebody always do this task in a particularly "bad" way, or did a few occasional "worst practice" situations slip through?
Always happy to help and guide.
Rs
Before
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Anonymous
Thank you Russell. Great Information that I will put to use. I did as you suggested and looked for best practices templates and examples at the company but did not find any. To answer your question regarding the possibility of "poor" best practices I don't know the answer. What I do know is that there is insufficient experience to know what they want, they just know they need a best practice. Saving Changes...
Russell GeakeProject Management Consultant| Deciduous Partners LtdLostwithiel, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like a that's a tricky situation, if you think you need any more advice, you can keep the conversation open here (we understand your anonymity) and we'll try and get more guidance from a wider audience or feel free to message me and I'll see if I can help further. It might useful to take the Define Measure Analyse Improve Control approach from Six Sigma.
I'll admit I am somewhat puzzled - it seems a strange request to me. If what was really asked of you is to "write a Best Practice", without any further information of context or anything, then it sounds to me like you have been asked to write a dictionary - for a language you don't know.
Besides, you said "there is insufficient experience to know what they want, they just know they need a best practice." How do they know they (whoever "they" are) need one? Based on my experience with capricious requesters, in all likelihood the correct way to put it is "they know they want one, they just think they need one".
For one thing, we've been saying "Best Practice, Best Practice" like some hip buzz word, but what field does it relate to anyway?
My advice would be, start with the basics. Look up "best practice" in the dictionary - here, I'll make life easy for you:
English, Noun
Best practice (plural best practices): a well defined procedure that is known to produce near-optimum results
Keep the key words in mind, they'll come in handy later (that is, "well-defined", "known", and "optimum results"). Then, as Russell said, Google is your friend (although he didn't say it like that). Know the field you've been told to work on, and collect as much information on it as you can. Assemble that knowledge into a document that presents the necessary procedure, down to the sufficient level of detail, in order to solve whatever problem "they" are worried about in the most efficient way. I'd start with something pretty basic, like listing:
- inputs = what begins your procedure
- actions = what activities are performed
- actors = who does what
- systems = what applications are used (if applicable)
- outputs = what your procedure produces
A process diagram or something similar might help.
Then, for each element, identify potential problems, like "we're not getting the inputs needed on time, so we end up being always late", or "actor X can only devote 20% of his time on action Y, creating a bottleneck", etc. With those issues identified, provide scenarios and hypotheses, within the boundaries of realism, which would solve these problems.
In addition, any best practice worth its salt has some sort of continuous improvement loop, in order to make sure that what's the "best" now stays the best over time, so don't forget to include that somewhere in your procedure.
Hope that helps. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
Best practices relate to something: the best practice for post-implementation reviews, or change control or something else. I prefer the term good practice, because it's hard to believe that we are ever the best at anything as that implies there is nothing we could do to be better. Besides, if everyone is doing 'best practice' then it isn't best any more, it's just the same as everyone else and therefore average.
However, to help with your immediate problem, try not to reinvent the wheel. Find examples of the best practices you are looking for. Try somthing like A Project Manager's Book of Forms by Cynthia Snyder Stackpole, for example, instead of designing your own forms and templates. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
Thank you everyone for all the great information. I am ready to give it a try based on all I've learned from you. I really appreicate your taking the time to help. Saving Changes...
