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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 desired outcome can be delivered with fewer problems and unforeseen complications. a Best practices can also be defined as the most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people. Image File history File links Information. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In rhetoric, a tautology is an unnecessary (and usually unintentional) repetition of meaning, utilising different words, i. ... abstraction in general. ... A management fad is a derisive term use to characterize a change in philosophy or operations that sweeps through businesses and institutions, and then disappears when enthusiasm for it wanes. ... Look up Technique in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Overview

The notion of a best practice is not new. Frederick Taylor (1919)^[1] 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”. This viewpoint came to be known as the "one best way" (Kanigel, 1997)^[2]. Frederick Taylor can refer to: Frederick Winslow Taylor, an American engineer Frederick Taylor, an early hockey player Frederick Taylor, a British historian, author of This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ...

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. Standardization or standardisation (sometimes abbreviated s13n), in the context related to technologies and industries, is the process of establishing a technical standard among competing entities in a market, where this will bring benefits without hurting competition. ... The Industrial Revolution was a major shift of technological, socioeconomic, and cultural conditions that occurred in the late 18th century and early 19th century in some Western countries. ... Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 The horse (Equus caballus, sometimes seen as a subspecies of the Wild Horse, Equus ferus caballus) is a large odd-toed ungulate mammal, one of ten modern species of the genus Equus. ... Catherine IIs carved, painted and gilded Coronation Coach (Hermitage Museum) George VI and Queen Elizabeth in a landau with footmen and an outrider, Canada 1939 The classic definition of a carriage is a four-wheeled horse drawn private passenger vehicle with leaf springs (elliptical springs in the 19th century... The Trikke is a Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) This article is about the means of transport. ...

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. At the same time, however, he inadvertently created the new 'Best Practice', which has become the only high jump technique ever since. 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^[3]). The 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad, were held in Mexico City in 1968. ... Richard Douglas Dick Fosbury (born March 6, 1947) is an American athlete who revolutionised the high jump using a back-first technique, now known as the Fosbury flop. ...

Real-world use

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. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Best Practices are commonly used in many Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Marketing Operations Management (MOM) systems. A Best Practice can be selected (generally from several competing options) and defined within a computer system. Then, any organization performing similar tasks can draw from the same procedure, and theoretically improve their operations. Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) integrate (or attempt to integrate) all data and processes of an organization into a unified system. ... Marketing Operations Management(MOM) is a vision of end to end marketing optimization, from planning and budgeting, through marketing content management, to global marketing execution and analysis. ...

Human Resources is one example of Best Practices as implemented in MOM systems. There are numerous standard procedures defined when 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 Human Resource Management (HRM) system software are able to produce systems that can be used by multiple organisations. This article is about human resources, as it applies to business, labor, and economies. ... Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organizations most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. ...

Because such systems are restrictive by nature, implementing Best Practices by using such software may force organizations who have less formally defined procedures to conform to a single standard. Deviation from this standard may require a change to the software. Avoiding these related costs may be a motivating factor in choosing to conform.

Newly discovered Best Practices and changing industry standards often heavily influence ERP/MOM/HRM system design. Recent pressures on companies to change quickly in emerging global marketplaces have forced many vendors to be more flexible in how Best Practices are defined and implemented Standardization or standardisation (sometimes abbreviated s13n), in the context related to technologies and industries, is the process of establishing a technical standard among competing entities in a market, where this will bring benefits without hurting competition. ...

Best practices continually evolve

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. (As defined in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) 2000 Edition): A project plan is A formal, approved document used to guide both project execution and project control. ...

Exchange

Best practices in a particular industry or other professional field can be exchanged, just like any instructional capital, by any means, though Internet-related information is most commonly exchanged this way: Instructional capital is a term used in educational administration, to reflect capital resulting from investment in producing learning materials. ...

• source code
• e-democracy
• e-government

There are numerous such efforts now in government especially in the English speaking world: Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ... E-democracy (a neologism and contraction of electronic democracy) is the utilization of electronic communications technologies, such as the Internet, in enhancing democratic processes within a democratic republic or representative democracy. ... The term (in all its uses) is generally agreed to derive from electronic government which introduces the notion and practicalities of electronic technology into the various dimensions and ramifications of government. ...

• Federation of Canadian Municipalities FCM InfraGuide
• U.S. government Government Open Code Collaborative
• UK local democracy project which calls this a knowledge pool [2]

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is a civic advocacy group composed of every municipality in Canada. ... The Federation of Canadian Municipalities InfraGuide or FCM InfraGuide is a best practice exchange among municipalities to aid in better public management of infrastructural capital assets. ... ... The U.S. Government Open Code Collaborative or Government Open Code Collaborative Repository is a best practice exchange among government agencies employing free software, open source, share alike and other methods of solving software-related problems in an open collaborative way. ... The UK local e-democracy national project is a best practice exchange among municipal governments. ...

Best practices and kaizen

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 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. This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ...

Best practices domains

Domains where Best Practices have been applied include:

• Incremental and iterative development
• Quality Assurance
• Performance engineering
• Risk management
• Change Process
• Release execution
• Milestones
• Release Control
• Defect tracking
• Use Case
• Requirements management
• Automated testing process
• Evidence-based medicine
• Physical planning and land use management
• Local governance

Best Practices are used in technology development, such as new software, but also in construction, transportation, business management,sustainable development, and various aspects of Project Management. Iterative and Incremental development is a software development process, as opposed to more traditional waterfall model. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Performance engineering is the set of roles, skills, activities, practices, tools, and deliverables applied at every phase of the Systems Development Lifecycle which ensures that a solution will be designed and implemented to meet the non-functional requirements defined for the solution. ... For non-business risks, see risk or the disambiguation page risk analysis. ... This article or section appears to contain a large number of buzzwords. ... A milestone A milestone is one of a series of numbered markers placed along a road at regular intervals, typically at the side of the road or in a median. ... In engineering, defect tracking is the process of finding defects in a product, (by inspection, testing, or recording feedback from customers), and making new versions of the product that fix the defects. ... In software engineering and systems engineering, a use case is a technique for capturing functional requirements of systems and systems-of-systems. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is an attempt to more uniformly apply the standards of evidence gained from the scientific method, to certain aspects of medical practice. ... Project Management is the discipline of organizing and managing resources (e. ...

Best Practices are used within any business type including, but not limited to: sales, manufacturing, teaching, programming software, road construction, health care, insurance, and accounting. The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... Manufacturing (from Latin manu factura, making by hand) is the use of tools and labor to make things for use or sale. ... In education, teachers are those who teach students or pupils, often a course of study or a practical skill. ... Elements of Programming Software Computer programming Programming language Computer program Software suite Integrated development environment (IDE) Application programming interface (API) Text editor Source code editor Programming tool Compiler Compiler optimization Interpreter (computing) Parsing Linker Assembler Debugger Software Development is founded on Programming Software Instruction Command Implementation Execution (computers) Software development... This page is related to transport; you may be looking for the 2002 Bollywood movie Road. ... A physician visiting the sick in a hospital. ... Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent loss. ... It has been suggested that Accounting scholarship be merged into this article or section. ...

Documenting and charting these procedures and practices is a complicated and time-consuming process often skipped by companies, even though they may practice the proper processes consistently.

Some consulting firms specialize in the area of Best Practice. Often "Best Practice" consulting firms offer pre-made 'templates' to standardize business process documentation. A key strategic talent is required to provide good "Best Practice" consulting to organisations: the ability to balance the uniqueness of an organisation with practices it has in common with other organisations. Shortcut: WP:TM Part of the Style and how-to series Templates are used within articles to provide a consistent look to the messages placed into them. ...

In many cases the cost of making modifications to a system or process which comes standard in a template or with a delivered computer application forces an organisation into using "Best Practice". Often it is to the benefit of the organisation. Sometimes a "Best Practice" will hurt an organisation. Good "Best Practice" consulting firms can assist organisations in making decisions appropriate for the organisation.

Good Operating Practice

Good Operating Practice is a strategic management term, usually capitalized. More specific uses of the term include Good Agricultural Practices, Good Manufacturing Practice, Good Laboratory Practice, Good Clinical Practice and Good Distribution Practice. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Technical terminology is the specialised vocabulary of a profession or of some other activity to which a group of people dedicate significant parts of their lives (for instance, hobbies or a particular segment of industry). ... The term Good Agricultural Practices can refer to any collection of specific methods, which when applied to agriculture, produce results that are in harmony with the values of the proponents of those practices. ... Good Manufacturing Practice is a set of regulations, codes, and guidelines for the manufacture of drug substances (also known as active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)) and drug products (known as medicinal products in Europe), medical devices, in vivo and in vitro diagnostic products, and foods. ... GLP It is important to be safe when playing in a lab. ... Good clinical practice is a set of rules and regulations that is provided by International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) - an international body that regulates clinical trials involving human subjects. ... Good Distribution Practice or GDP deals with the guidelines for the proper distribution of medicinal products for human use. ...

See also

• Best Coding Practices
• Best practice exchange
• Benchmarking
• Strategic management
• Project management
• Best Available Technology

There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... A best practice exchange is an effort to find and share best practices in a particular industry or other professional field. ... Benchmarking (also best practice benchmarking or process benchmarking) is a process used in management and particularly strategic management, in which organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes in relation to best practice, usually within their own sector. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Project Management is the discipline of organizing and managing resources (e. ... Best Available Technology, or BAT, is a spare no expense doctrine which prescribes the acquistion of the best technology available, without regard for traditional cost-benefit analyses. ...

References

1. ^ Taylor, F (1919). The Principles of Scientific Management. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers.
2. ^ Kanigel, R (1997). The One Best Way: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency. New York: Penguin Books.
3. ^ Hoag, B and Cooper, C L (2006). Managing Value-Based Organizations: It's Not What You Think. Northampton, MA and Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. http://www.p-advantage.com