Best practice(s) and strateg(ies)

The value of best practice should be measured in its capacity for responding to the needs of a reasonable range of projects; both in quality (different scopes) and dimension (relation between time and budget).

This fundamental requirement is based on the need for maintaining the management’s accountability throughout the whole process. For this reason, the differences among the various versions of “best practices” cannot be overwhelming. Either the projects (program) are focused on releasing products or setting up services, the whole process has to be kept linear. An ordinate series of input and output, where for each of them there is one person responsible and the “algorithm” (with its laws and range criteria) is properly defined.

Naturally, they have to cover all stages of the whole process, sometimes it could suggest the transformation of big project into a program that optimizes the synergies of smaller and more concentrated projects.

How to use best practice as strategy

As soon as the project (program) manager can offer a clear, credible and accessible history (through the shrewd usage of strategy) operating the resources made available to him/her, the alleged “lack of transparency” from the stakeholders can be treated as risk. Therefore, monetized.

How to deal with your company’s best practice (if any available)

Methodologies are always good ideas. However, the human beings called to implement them are limited, if not fallacious. Best practices have to fill the gap between the ideal world and the nitty-gritty of each company’s reality.

On the other side of the coin, strategies are just logical tools for the correct usage of the best practices.

They are part of the company’s structure. The only acceptable attitude toward them is a positive acceptance. All efforts to understand the underlining logic (there always is one) can greatly help to understand the predominant culture. Instead of trying to improve one or another aspect, it is important to find who (and possibly why) set that rule. It could offer a good hindsight to be used for designing and using strategies.

Is  eclecticism a value?

Throughout this blog, as mirror of my career, I tend to invest energy for learning and improving techniques. It shall be different from poaching ideas from a quick glance to some other blogs (and the ubiquitous Wikipedia – a big cheer to the scores of people working on it).

A deep understanding and honest testing different solutions could increase the skill-set and improve the personal qualities.

However, this approach hides some big risks.

1. A growing faith in the technique, forgetting the fundamentals (either economic or personal)
2. Too much focus on a single aspect of the problem causes a bias toward just only one idea, leaving out all the complexity of the problem under exam.
3. Fall in love with the novelty. The new (sometimes, untested) is not yet bound to old failures. However, they do not grant new success, without considering all risks (the novelty is one of the biggest)
4. Mashing up different (and poor understood) ideas can create costly misshapes.

Conclusion

As consultant, I have been lucky to work in very different environment (either business or cultural). At the beginning of each project, the most recurrent phrase is about how different is that specific environment. After a while (and a bit of hard work) people and processes appear in their “standard uniqueness”. Robust best practices have worked (duly tuned) in every project.

Like the human beings, good rules can be used in different situation, the common factors are always the same:

1. Mutual respect for each person, whatever is his/her role.
2. Good mastering of the tools of the trade. Their box is called “best practice”.

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

More reading

http://www.acq.osd.mil/sse/docs/IMP_IMS_Guide_v9.pdf  (kindly pointed out  by  Glen Alleman ) It offer an organic viewpoint about program/project management.