Best Practice

Contents 1 Applications    1.1 1) Reasons Best Practices are Difficult to Adopt 2 Examples 3 References

Best practices are documented processes, actions, or tasks that have been shown to produce superior results; selected by a systematic process; and judged as exemplary, good, or successfully demonstrated”.

It is a repeatable procedure that is continually refined. It is never a best way of doing things that will continue to be the same for an extended period of time.

Applications

Best Practices are usually identified through "benchmarking" a systematic method for finding best or better ways of doing things that have already been proven by organizations similar to yours. Benchmarks become valid when the performance levels of organizations for a specific process or activity has been compared to your own in a positive way.

Since no two organizations are ever exactly alike, best practices are always then customized or adapted to fit a particular organization.

1) Reasons Best Practices are Difficult to Adopt

The issues with adopting best practices include:

• Understanding and documenting your own systems and processes to be able to compare against others. Having a shared understanding among stakeholders, versus just one person's perspective, is often an issue.

• Finding valid sources of best practices

• Knowing whether a particular practice is suitable for your situation. Is the source organization, it's environment, it's people, similar enough to yours to make the practice transferable?

• Adapting the practice to your organization. What needs to be customized and why?

• Finding the time and other resources to properly vet, select, adapt, and police the new best practice.

• Working through all of the cultural change issues involved when modifying the way people work.

Examples

ProjectHEADWAY

References