Best Practice

Best Practice is a management idea which asserts that there is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive or reward that is more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc. The idea is that with proper processes, checks, and testing, a project can be rolled out and completed with fewer problems and unforeseen complications.

The notion of a best practice is not new. Frederick Taylor (1919) said as much nearly 100 years ago: “among the various methods and implements used in each element of each trade there is always one method and one implement which is quicker and better than any of the rest” (Taylor, 1919). This viewpoint came to be known as the "one best way" (Kanigel, 1997).

History, however, is filled with examples of people who were unwilling to accept the industry standard as the best way to do anything. The enormous technological changes since the Industrial Revolutions in England and the United States bear witness to this fact. For example, at one time horses were considered the 'best' form of transportation, even after 'horse-less carriages' were invented. Today, most people drive a gasoline, diesel, or bio-fuel vehicle—itself an improvement on the horse-less carriage.

A more recent example can be found in the 1968 Summer Olympics where a young man named Dick Fosbury revolutionized high-jumping technique. Using an approach that became known as the Fosbury Flop, he won the gold medal (in a new Olympic record height of 2.24m or 7 ft 4 1/4 in), by going over the bar back-first instead of head-first. Had he relied on 'best practice,' as did all of his fellow competitors, he probably would not have won the event. Instead, by ignoring 'Best Practice', he raised the performance bar—literally—for everyone. The purpose of any standard is to provide a kind of plumb line, and therefore that standard must be, "What is possible?" and not, "what is somebody else doing?" (Hoag & Cooper, 2006).

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In real-world application, Best Practice is a very useful concept. Despite the need to improve on processes as times change and things evolve, Best Practice is considered by some as a business buzzword used to describe the process of developing and following a standard way of doing things that multiple organizations can use for management, policy, and especially software systems.

Consider the use of Best Practice in 21st century computer systems and particularly MOM systems. A Best Practice is chosen (whether it really is the best practice or not!) and implemented into the computer system. This allows multiple organizations performing similar tasks to use the same software for their tasks.

Human Resources is a good example of Best Practice as evidenced in most MOM systems. There are an infinite number of ways and a huge number of processes involved in managing an organisation's employees, volunteers, and contractors. By choosing a "Best Practice" or standard way of organizing and performing processes, the makers of MOM systems or HRMS software are able to produce systems that can be used by multiple organisations.

Often the benefit of Best Practice implementation in this context is that organizations who have poorly designed (or more likely evolved) processes are given a choice between an (typically) expensive modification to their system, or choosing to follow a Best Practice.

The changing of Best Practice over time is a major force in ERP system lifecycles. Many major software releases have been prompted by the change or introduction of a Best Practice within an industry.

The rate of enormous technological change over the past century forces rapid adaptation and versatile Best Practices.

The notion of 'best practices' does not commit people or companies to one inflexible, unchanging practice. Instead, Best Practices is a philosophical approach based around continuous learning and continual improvement.

For example, the American Productivity and Quality Centre (APQC) [1] suggests that:

"Three themes resonate through successful benchmarking and
best-practice transfer efforts:

1. Transfer is a people-to-people process; meaningful relationships precede sharing and transfer.
2. Learning and transfer is an interactive, ongoing, and dynamic process that cannot rest on a static body of knowledge. Employees are inventing, improvising, and learning something new every day.
3. Benchmarking stems from a personal and organizational willingness to learn. A vibrant sense of curiosity and a deep respect and desire for learning are the keys to success."

Best practices do not have one template or form for everyone to follow. In the context of Business Management, Best Practice is the concept that a good process, and planning, is being followed in the Execution Management of a project plan, and that changes to the initial plan, dependencies, and goals are being tracked and documented.

The Japanese word kaizen has been imported into Western organizational language and stresses the importance of efforts to improve constantly. This ethos is antithetical to the commonly accepted notions of best practice. Some organizations consider their Best Practices to be a badge of honor, believing that having adopted this technique, method or process that further improvement is not the priority that it was before that particular practice was implemented.

Best Practices is ideally, and at the core of the concept, the defining of methods used to get things done. Benefits often include the assurance of quality results and consistency when the process is followed.

Links:
Best Practice Group PLC
ProAction Best Practices
Best Practice Institute

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