Hello All
When some organization or individuals claim to have developed or introduce activities as best practices, how do you validate that? I see this a lot with suppliers and consultants, especially through vendor selection events. They typically will say that they have either developed or they use industry best practices. What methods are used to validate or confirm that any practice introduced as a best practice is truly a best practice? Thanks for your insight.
Answers
Hi George. I too work for IBM. I would suggest asking specifically which industry-wide best practices the individuals or organizations use (e.g. ITIL, PMI project methodology) and ask how the organizations/individuals specifically map those practices to their own processes and procedures. If it's an org, do they have a company-wide certification in addition to these industry-wide practices. Using the PMI example, a PMP certification is just a matter of taking and passing an exam. However, an organization may have a local certification that includes proof of project size, complexity, budget, processes, etc. This all should come out during an interview process. A good candidate should be able to describe HOW they use industry best practices. As for developing best practices -- has the individual or org applied for a patent for these best practices? Are there documented processes/procedures for said best practices? If not, then you have reason to question. Understanding that these documents may be proprietary until they have a signed agreement with you, they may be hesitant to share the documents, but they should be able to clearly articulate the development of their Intellectual Capital and how it is controlled and maintained.
Hope you found this helpful and best of luck in your endeavors! - Brian
George,
I work for IBM in helping clients develop best practices for Systems and Software development. Your question is one that I have often dealt with. From my experience a company’s "Best Practice" is the manifestation the organization has developed over the years as result of a few employees with some experience in published standard, but often passed to others and eventually becoming the standard operating procedure for the organization. This sometimes gets watered down through the years by turnover, loss of talent, and lack of discipline.
Depending on your type of business I would suggest you stick with the professional trade organizations such as the IEEE; http://www.ieee.org/index.html. This is near and dear to me as the job I’ve held for the past 15 years is to help organizations create “best practices” using people, processes, and tools. The ability to document the process regardless of the industry it the first step in being able to validate you follow it, and it is the “best” for your type of business.
I hope your find this useful.
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