Blog: Time to blow up best practices myths

Time to blow up best practices myths

By Dennis Howlett | November 12, 2010, 11:25am PST

I’m not sure if this is a trend but I am noticing the term ‘best practices’ turning up in many a presentation. It kinda goes like this: ‘We know your implementation is failing but if you follow these best practices, then hey presto, good karma will be magically restored to all.’ The polite way of characterizing this is ‘piffle.’ The less polite way is per this Tweet:

@SAP_Jarret The term ‘best practice’ is - Grade A BS. A best practice might exist for 1,2 co’s rarely if ever for everyone

This Tweet prompted SAP consultant Nathan Genez to get up on his hind legs on the SAP Community Netowrk and lay into the expression. He starts:

Best Practices are merely a guide or process that is believed to be more effective than an alternative processes. Note that they are not *the* solution even though most everyone in the industry equates one with the other. When interpreted from this more moderate (realistic?) viewpoint, they serve as a good reference point for SAP customers. Considering the large number of SAP projects that fail to live up to pre-implementation expectations and deliver sub-optimal solutions, it would seem that the industry would be falling over itself to continually refine these best practices. Part of that process would be to correctly interpret the phrase from the get-go but the industry doesn’t seem to care about that.

… But then in comes the consultants. As Nathan describes:

I dislike the phrase because I routinely see consultants using it as a shield. By that, I mean that they use the phrase “its best practice” as a way to justify what is, in fact, just their opinion. This seems to come mostly from people who can’t justify their answer on their own. They can’t explain the rationale behind why their solution is better / easier / quicker / more stable / etc. Either they don’t fully understand the functionality or process in question, or they aren’t aware of all of the alternative solutions that are available, and therefore can’t justify their answer based on merit. They take the easy way out… they recommend a course of action based on the little that they know and then append “its best practice” to it as if this will legitimze the inaccuracies of their answer. Then they sweat bullets as they pray that the other party won’t press them on the issue.

Nathan’s argument takes us to a level I believe is sorely under-estimated. When you look at the footprint that an ERP covers it may, and I say may, reach 30-45% of required functionality. It should therefore be obvious that what masquerades as a claimed best practice needs careful examination. Too often, customers are blinded by Jar-Gon and then wonder what went wrong.

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