The Concept of “Best Practice” in Information Systems October 2005

“At any given time in the life of a profession,

certain ways of framing problems and roles come into good currency.”

(Schon, 1987:309)

Abstract

Best Practices in IS are frequently seen as a “Silver Bullet” that will solve all problems (Evans, Segura &

Doherty, 2005). In practice however they rapidly become a quagmire.

This essay examines the concept of “Best Practices” in IS as a techno-rational practice, devoid of the meaning that

created them initially.

According to Schon (1987) a good practice involves the use of reflection or “knowledge–in-action”. This

approach requires the practitioner to reflect on practices and underlying assumptions, thereby improving practices

by eliminating or avoiding mistakes.

As an approach in IS the reflection-in-action has long been seen as a “good practice” (Collier, DeMarco & Feary,

1996). This essay, examines the development of a number of e-Commerce applications during the authors career,

by reflecting on the way that the software was developed and implemented.

It was found that the exchange of practices led to the most lasting results. This does however require the

organisations to have the willingness or desire examine their underlying paradigms or assumptions.

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Best Practices in Information Systems

Best practices in Information Systems (IS) could be defined as a set of work practices that can be

applied in order to improve the process, technique, and or implementation of IS.

“Best practices are often looked on as the Holy Grail of process improvement, the silver bullet that

will cure all ills” (Evans, Segura & Doherty, 2005).

The mechanical application of these practices may occur without due consideration of their origin

and context, and once implemented could rapidly become a quagmire (Wagner, Galliers & Scott, 2004).

The question that one should consider is whether it is the actual practices, or the development of the

practices, that can be considered best.

This essay examines the concept, origin, and application of best practice in IS. An approach of “the

reflective practitioner” is adopted, looking at “best practices” in the authors’ career of IS.

The concept of Best Practice

Best practice in IS can be applied to any aspect or process. The ones that come to mind are IT

Management (ITIL, CobIT), Capability Maturity Models (CMM), Software Engineering (Software

inspection, eXtreme Programming), Software Development Life Cycles (Rational Unified Process or

RUP), Project Management (PMBOK, SPICE), Architectures (Zachman Framework), Knowledge

Management, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) etc.

According to Gertler (2001:6) the concept of “best practice” has become a common benchmark

against which organisational performance can and should be measured against, and that “it applies to

both outcomes (labour hours per vehicle assembled) and processes (ISO 9000 etc) as well as techniques

and management”.

Through over-use however, the concept of “Best Practice” has become “both self-evident and

unassailable” and have been “de-problematized in that their definition, implementation and attainment

are accepted as straightforward” (Gertler, 2001: 6).

Best practices have ultimately become devoid of the meaning that originally created them (Spence,

2005).

“Best Practices” as a techno-rational practice

Argyris & Schon (1978) identify the concept of “best practices” as originating from a technical

rationality. These practices tend to adhere to the principles that Taylor (1947) applied to scientific

management (Bond & Kirkham, 1999). Based on these principles, “practitioners are instrumental

problem-solvers who select technical means best suited to a particular purpose” (Schon, 1987).

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This approach may work well for clearly defined technical problems, however, problems involving a

degree of uncertainty, uniqueness and value conflict, especially those involving human actors, do not fit

this approach (Schon, 1987:6).

As information systems is an interdisciplinary field, encompassing diverse disciplines such as

sociology, psychology, technology, politics, and others (Benbasat & Zmud, 2003), the adoption of

technical-rational “best practice” processes, applications, patterns, benchmarking etc. as taught and

used in Information Systems may lead to failure.

The art of “Best Practice”

If practice refers to how we learn and do (Wikipedia, 2005), then the adoption of “best practice”

implies the learning and doing of good or better practices.

Argyris & Schon (1972) identify improved learning and doing based on the “organisational

learning” or professional artistry approach. Emphasis should be placed on “creativity, innovation, and

exploration of alternative and sometimes contradictory perspectives on practice…stressing investigation

and reflection on practice and operations” (Bond & Kirkham, 1999:247).

The adoption of practices are therefore not necessarily the best practice, it seems as if it is in the

development of the organisation that the learning takes place

Which practice is Best

In order to define what comprises “best practice”, one can look at how those practices have been

developed.

Fielding et al. (2005) state that a best practice can be measured as how “best” it is by the impact it

has, as well as its provenance.

The impact can be financial, social, organisational etc. The challenge with examining impact is that

it is based on “measurables” and that there is often a large time gap between implementing the practice

and seeing the effect (O’Connor & McDermott, 1997).

Provenance refers to practices being “imported” based on the trust that an organisation has of the

source of the practice.

This makes it difficult to determine just how “best” a “best practice” is. Who should rightly

determine this? Should it be measured by the “best” organisations, or by the “best” journals? Are they

all correct, or which one is best? Should one take an average, the most powerful, the most adopted, the

most expensive? It appears as if the concept seems to raise more questions than answers.

In an effort to clarify the concept of Best Practice in IS, I have decided to examine best practices

based on my own experiences, through applying the art of the reflective practitioner.

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Applying the art of the reflective practitioner

Understanding the challenges of learning, and adopting other “best practices” does not necessarily

aid us in improving our own practices. Schön (1983) proposes that professional practice involves the

use of knowledge-in-action or reflection-in-action. Dewey (1933 in Smith, 2001) claims that knowledge

is gained by reflecting “after” the event.

The experience (of the reflective practitioner) is identified by Smith (2001) as the ‘thinking-on-your-

feet’ type of instinctive response to an unexpected, unclassifiable problem or of “theories-in-use”. The

implications that the reflective practitioner have for practice, is that it is possible to reflect on practices,

and underlying assumptions (or theory in action), thereby eliminating (or avoiding) learning by mistake.

“The dilemma of rigor or relevance may be dissolved if we can develop an epistemology of

practice which places technical problem solving within a broader context of reflective inquiry”

(Schon 1987: 69).

This however requires of us to acknowledge the role of cognition and problem solving in the field of IS.

Research Background

In my career as an IS practitioner, I have been involved in the design, development and

implementation of a number of e-Commerce applications. For brevity, some of these projects are listed

in Table 1: IS Projects.

This essay will examine in retrospect the practices of the reflective practitioner based on the authors

own experience in the development and implementation of these e-Commerce applications. The

purpose is to examine which of these practices are “silver bullets” and which are quagmires.

Reflective Practice as a Best Practice

As this article is written “ex post facto” the reader should be aware that these practices are also

looked at through the lens of “hindsight” (a perfect science).

“Conventional wisdom in the software industry decrees that it's good practice to conduct a

postmortem study at the end of each project” (Collier, DeMarco & Feary, 1996).

This practice is in keeping with the “art of the reflective practitioner” and is the philosophy that will

be applied in examining the best practices below.

An approach that we were introduced to in software development is one of:

1. Make it work,

2. Make it right,

3. Make it fast.

The origin/author of this practice is unknown; however it appears as if it is now incorporated in the

practices of the eXtreme Programming (XP) methodology.

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In the early days of web application development (circa. 1996), the performance of the network (the

internet) was far slower than the processing speed of the web servers, therefore practice 3 (make it fast)

never really became important.

The practices used during the following projects, were therefore based on two key aspects, what

works (make it work), and what makes sense (make it right).

Make it Work

This practice frequently resulted in the developers (us) trying different ways of achieving our

objectives “by means of an iterative process of “code-test-code”. This meant that “anything goes”

resulting in what is referred to as Ducks Law “Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the

dickens underneath” (Ascribed to either Charles Dickens or Michael Caine).

The resulting “spaghetti” code made maintenance, change and review difficult. As projects were

often under tremendous time pressure, development was frequently frozen after the “Make it Work”

practice.

Make it Right

Our first e-Commerce client, CD Africa, used some of the practices developed for Protea Hotels,

namely the storage of stock-items (Hotels) in a database. By re-using the same approach, more elegant

ways were developed to implement the same features, and more time was taken to reduce the need for

coding in the application.

“The success of the postmortem-or of any learning process-demands a context that makes

organizational learning possible” (Collier, DeMarco & Feary, 1996).

This meant that learning from previous practices was effectively “paid for” by the next client. In

reality it however meant a reduction in development time, and an improvement in quality.

Other aspects that were “improved” upon in the same way were:

1. The development of a (standardised) shopping basket,

2. The use of ISO codes for countries,

3. The development of a shipping/orders backend, and

4. An online payment processing system.

These improvements in development practices, coding, and software quality were instrumental in

enabling us to improve our work practices, but they were however of lesser importance when looked at

from a clients perspective.

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Make it Fast

The development of the first online store (CD Africa) was done in conjunction with the client. As a

result the client had substantial input into the form, and function of the application. The end result was

successfully use by the client (of the system), however because of poor usage by the market, with

limited commercial success.

Increasingly, the need to use already developed code & practices, meant that subsequent customers

were either given no choice in the results, some changes considering the local or business requirements,

or involved a transfer of practice. These are referred to as replication, adaptive and exchange

respectively by Fielding et al. (2005).

Replication of Practices

With the replication of practices, the original practice is maintained, learning is one-sided, and

compliance is the key issue (Fielding et al. 2005).

In implementing the next online store (The Heritage Collection), the client was required to adopt all

the practices and processes of the previous store (CD Africa). Not only did this result in the failed

adoption of the online store, but in a failure of the store itself.

Other evidence of this mode of transfer was with Action Racing Online. A fully automated online

credit card payment system was rolled out with the client. The back office payment processing system

was adopted from previous online store, without due consideration of the changed working methods of

the new organisation. Within three months the client was processing credit card payments manually

over the phone.

Adaptive Practices

With the adaptive mode, the local culture and circumstance is taken into consideration. The practice

is therefore modified by the host organisation. In rare circumstances the originating host may learn from

the implementation (Fielding et al. 2005).

With the Investec project, a custom banking/bill payment application was developed, based on the

organisational culture and practices. This resulted in a web based application that was merely an

automated paper-based process. On request (demand) from the client, any transaction had to be

authorized by the client printing a form, and faxing it back to the bank. This resulted in a severely

restrictive application that was doomed to failure.

What was missing in this interaction was a bi-directional flow of ideas and practices, where both

parties learnt from the interaction.

Exchange of Practices

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With the exchange of practices, the key focus is reciprocity, and learning occurs on both sides. This

can be more likened to a developmental model than a transfer model. This improves the practice

through mutual learning (Fielding et al. 2005).

One of the most successful projects, both for the host organisation and commercially, was the Beetle

Shop. In a collaborative approach of mutual trust and respect, practices developed with “CD Africa”

and “The Heritage Collection” was integrated with practices from the host organisation. This resulted in

a symbiotic partnership, where the best was achieved by both parties.

The Habit of Best Practices

For “Organisational Learning” to take place, “the learning must become embedded in the norms,

beliefs and in the way of doing things in the organisation” (Ramos & Roode, 2005).

This aspect was an important aspect of the way our organisation developed and implemented

information systems. Whether these practices were in fact “Best Practices” can only be determined by

the impact and provenance. Based on the success and longevity of three of the projects (Protea Hotels,

Beetle Shop & Propertyweb), one can say it has indeed been a silver bullet. However the fact that these

practices were not adopted by some of the clients may indicate otherwise. Although these projects were

based on “Silver Bullets” they quickly become quagmires, even resulting in their termination.

According to Covey (1989) for a practice or

behaviour to become a habit, it requires the

combination of knowledge (what to, why to), skill

(how to), and desire (want to). Just because an

organisation knows what and why to do something

(knowledge) does not mean that it will adopt a

practice. Even if it knows how to do something, it may

still not become a habit. The final link in the chain is a

desire or want to do, without which a practice will not

become a habit.

Figure 1 Covey (1989: 48) Habits

“The success of the adoption of a ‘best practice’ depends on the …organisational will (Desire)…

and its capability to spend resources to implement…and keep perfecting its newly acquired skills

and understandings” (Ramos & Roode, 2005).

Skills (how to)

Desire (want to)

Knowledge (what to, why to)

HABITS

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Conclusion

Based on the experience of developing a number of e-Commerce applications, and evaluated on the

impact and provenance that these practices had on the clients and other organisations, “best practices”

seem to be an approach of improving previous practices.

This does not necessarily mean that the adoption of a “best practice” will automatically catapult an

organisation into a higher state of practice. It does however become a “peg” on which to hang the

proverbial hat, and forms a basis for further improvement.

The quality or usefulness of the practice is based on the receptiveness and ability of the organisation

to adopt and learn a new way of doing and learning. This is not accomplished by merely knowing about

the practice, or of learning how to use it, but requires a willingness and desire from the organisation to

examine their underlying paradigms and assumptions.

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Table 1 IS Projects

DATE PROJECT DESCRIPTION PRACTICES/INNOVATIONS IMPACT/PROVENANCE REFLECTION

Aug

1996

Protea Hotels Online database

of Hotels in

Southern Africa

Used a database to store

images/details per hotel. Allowed for

rapid updates and additions without

the need for programming.

Considered a success. Been through 2

iterations in the past 10 years. Change

in platform/language. Addition of e-

commerce capability to book/check

availability online.

Client willing to try “new” way

of marketing. Rapidly adopts

application & later extends

functionality to include booking

option.

May

1997

CD Africa Online CD store

(Storefront

loosely based on

CDNOW.)

Used database to display and capture

products. Developed feature to cater

for upload/download of products from

Excel spreadsheets. Built

order/shipping backend & integration

with credit card approval.

Successful project, failed online store.

Did not generate sufficient orders to

maintain viability.

Was electronic front-end to physical

store.

In hindsight was a bit ambitious

& premature. System was

customized for pilot client.

Aug

1997

The Heritage

Collection

Online mail-order

catalogue

Used shopping store concept and

order process from CD Africa.

Fell into dis-use because client

wanted to hand-develop individual

pages, which did not fit into the

dynamic model.

Changing the system to suit

clients approach may have

ensured more successful

adoption.

Jan

1998

VW New

Beetle

Online store for

sale of

promotional

material

Used CD Africa model and shopping

basket. Included, but cutomised back-

end model to cater for international

shipping, and multiple languages

(English & German)

Successful online-store, selling in

excess of 1000 articles per day, from

inception. Marketing was done to

existing Beetle fans from Europe &

USA.

Successful exchange of

practices, and learning from

both client & developers.

Aug

1998

Action Racing

Online

(Payment

System)

Online selling of

horse information

(pedigrees, race

information etc).

Developed pay-per-view interface for

charging of information. Included

secure online interface to transact

with credit cards.

Pay-per-use successfully adopted by

organisation & clients. CC payment

mechanism bypassed & reverted to

manual processing.

Changes were “forced” onto

client resulting in minimal

acceptance and transfer of

practices.

Jan

1999

Property Web Online marketing

of properties

Development of online web site for

estate agents to market properties.

Developed secure backend to upload

images and update properties.

Training of estate agents led to

successful use of site. Secure

mechanism by-passed by later

developers.

Practices were introduced that

was too mature for the client.

This involved in the client

changing the system (secure

mechanism) to suit their

practices.

Oct

1998

Investec Bill

Payment

System

Web based online

banking and bill

payment system

for Investec Bank

Based on own (faulty processes),

thinks improvement over other banks

Introduced a automated (manual)

process. Limited adoption &

acceptance.

Our practices were modified to

suit those of the client, resulting

in minimal learning and transfer

of practices to the client.

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Glossary of Terms

TERM DEFINITION (WIKIPEDIA, THE FREE ONLINE DICTIONARY, 2005)

Best Practice “generally refers to the best possible way of doing something; it is commonly used

in the fields of business management, software engineering, and medicine, and

increasingly in government.”

Good Practice There is some momentum behind good practice as a preferred term, since it does

not imply that no further innovation or revision is required.

Information “data that has been interpreted, translated, or transformed to reveal the underlying

meaning”

Information

Systems

“a system of people, procedures and resources that collects, transforms and

disseminates information in an organization” (Haag et al., 2002)

Practice “connotes a few important things in regard to life ways and ideas, commonly

referring to how we learn and do.”

Quagmire “an English noun, derived from "quake" + "mire", meaning literally ‘shaky, miry

ground’ (See swamp)”

Reflective

Practice

“Reflective practice is a continuous process from a personal perspective, by

considering critical incidents within your lifes experiences. Un-structured approach

directing understanding and learning, a self regulated process, commonly used in

Health and Teaching professions, though applicable to all.”

Reflective

Practitioner

“Termed by Schon (1983) as an approach to decision-making and problem solving.

Schön found that when effective practitioners were faced with a problem in their

practice, they worked through it instinctively and, drawing on previous similar

experiences, they tried and tested out various possible solutions until they resolved

the issue. They worked through the problem using a mixture of knowing and doing.

He called this process ‘reflection-in-action’ and coined the term ‘theory-in-use’ to

describe the nature of the reflective activity engaged in.” (Kernaghan, 2005)

Silver bullet “The metaphor of the silver bullet applies to any straightforward solution perceived

to have extreme effectiveness. The phrase typically appears with an expectation that

some new technology or (work) practice will easily cure a major prevailing

problem… Experts often use the term more cynically to dampen unreasonable

expectations.”

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Social Practices “related to customs for how various people enact various works or events.

Practices are also related to custom as used in the legal phrase "customs and

practices" to refer to how people customarily conduct their business.”

System “an assemblage of inter-related elements comprising a unified whole. From the

Latin and Greek, the term ‘system’ meant to combine, to set up, to place together …

typically consists of components (or elements) which are connected together in

order to facilitate the flow of information, matter or energy.”

Work practices “ways of structuring that are things one must do, or ways in which something is

done. They are not implemented by technologies, but are usually conceived by …

humans, though not necessarily.”

“Examples of work practices include processes, patterns, decision, benchmarks.”

“In software engineering, work practices include software inspection, pair

programming, software reuse, etc.”