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Best Practice" represents a specific technique for managing an it project that has the best chances for success of that project. There is no uniform set of "best practices" that will suit the needs or every organization or every project. Best practices derived from an evolutionary process that involves success and failures of the past. Best practices represent a system of processes, checks, balances, and testing methods to ensure the success of a project. However, recently, the idea of this systemized process has come under fire. It has been argued that project management that relies on best practices alone will not ensure the success of a project. The following will examine the advantages and disadvantages of best practices in the management of it projects.

Why Use Best Practices?

Best practices in the it field developed largely from failures (Kay, 2002). They were the result of it projects that did not meet customer expectations or perform as intended. Managers wanted some assurance that future projects would have better results than previous ones. Therefore, they develop a process that would include several different phases, with attention to each phase at its proper time and place. There are many different versions of "best practices" to be used for it projects. Some are merely reiterations of others, while others were borrowed from other fields and adapted to the it field.

One of the most important considerations in the adoption of best practices is that one selects the "best practices" that are most compatible with their organization and goals of the project. Organizations that are performing similar tasks can draw from a similar set of best practices. However, one must still be careful to make certain that they are not blindly following the steps of others. The most important aspect of the selection or development of best practices is that it meets the needs of the individual organization.

One of the key advantages of best practices systems are that is assures a systematic approach to problem solving. Several steps are common in it projects. There is typically a planning and assessment stage, an implementation stage, a testing phase, and ongoing maintenance stage (State of Arkansas, 2003). These stages have different names and are divided differently in various methods, but they are essentially the same.

Most agree that the planning stage is the most important to the success of the project. Adopting a process such as this will assure that the process occurs in an organized fashion and that nothing is left out. Best practices provides a roadmap for the project. It is an easy way to make certain that project goals are clear and that the project will meet the intended objectives. Organization is the key advantage to the best practices method.

How Realistic is the Best Practices Approach?

As one can see, best practices has many advantages from an organizational perspective. It can provide a systematic approach to the project. However, best practices is not without criticism. Not every project that an organization undertakes conforms to the system set forth in an organization's best practices. In some cases, best practices might restrict a project in such as manner that it cannot achieve its goals. This is one of the reasons for the evolution of best practices. Best practices represents a philosophy that is centered on continual learning and adjustment to changes.

Some organizations replace organizational policies with "best practices." This can result in a policy that is too inflexible to deal with changes (Visitacion, 2003). An inflexible best practices policy can result in a dysfunctional organization that is unable to meet changing needs. Best practices is the core concept behind methods such as Kaizen, Six Sigma, and Total Quality Assurance (Kay, 2002). The problem with these methods is that once they are adopted and put into place, the learning process may stop. The organization develops a sense of confidence from the adoption of these practices. However, this is the wrong attitude to adopt. The learning and adaptation does not stop once one becomes a Six Sigma Blackbelt, it means that the process of improvement has only just begun.

The danger of best practices is that one can become too dependent on the processes. This could cause the organization to miss things simply because they have too much confidence in the system. Relying on best practices too much can mean taking away from the value of the human factor. Human observation is the best prevention that a company can have. It cannot be replaced by a system of set of rules. This is a common pitfall that lies behind many project failures, even in the presence of an excellent set of best practices for the completion of the project.

As one can see, there are both positive and negative aspects to "best practices" in many organizations. From one standpoint, best practices assures that the project will proceed in an orderly fashion. From the other, it is easy to rely too much on best practices and too little on the talent within the organization. In the final analysis, it appears that one must be careful how one applies best practices and how they relate best practices to the situation at hand.

Best practices give some level of assurance that a certain level of quality is achieved. They can contain benchmarks and performance measures against which to gauge the progress and success of the project (State of Arkansas, 2003). However, they should never be so rigid as to be considered policy (State of Arkansas, 2003). Best practices are an effective tool as long as they are treated as just that, a tool. Best practices should not dictate the "rules" of the project (Visitacion, 2003). They should serve as a guideline to help the project proceed in an organized manner. Best practices are useful, but only if one treats them as guideline and not the sole governing set of standards on a project.

Best practices that are flexible and written in such as way that they can be interpreted as needed are the most effective and produce the best results (Visitacion, 2003). However, one must be cautioned not to allow them to become too vague either. They must be concrete enough to be actionable, but not inflexible. The most important thing to remember about best practices is that they are not the focus of the project: The project is the focus of the best practices. Too many times the focus tends to drift away from the project toward the "best practices" and the adherence to them (Visitacion, 2003). Focusing too much on the process and not on the project can jeopardize the final project outcome.