IT: Best Practices (Definitions)

"A preferred and repeatable action or set of actions completed to fulfill a specific requirement or set of requirements during the phases within a product-development process." (Clyde M Creveling, "Six Sigma for Technical Processes: An Overview for R Executives, Technical Leaders, and Engineering Managers", 2006)

"A process or method that is generally recognized to produce superior results. The application of these should result in a positive, measurable change." (Tilak Mitra et al, "SOA Governance", 2008)

"A technique or methodology that, through past experience and research, has proven to reliably lead to a desired result. A commitment to using the best practices in any field (for example, in the domain of IT Architecture) ensures leveraging past experience and all of the knowledge and technology at one’s disposal to ensure success." (Allen Dreibelbis et al, "Enterprise Master Data Management", 2008)

"An effective way of doing something. It can relate to anything from writing program code to IT governance." (Judith Hurwitz et al, "Service Oriented Architecture For Dummies" 2nd Ed., 2009)

"A best practice is commonly understood to be a well-proven, repeatable, and established technique, method, tool, process, or activity that is more certain in delivering the desired results. This indicates that a best practice typically has been used by a large number of people or organizations and/or over a long time, with significant results that are clearly superior over other practices. Knowledge patterns can be used to formalize the description of a best practice." (Jörg Rech et al, "Knowledge Patterns" [in "Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management" 2nd Ed.], 2011)

"A specific method that improves the performance of a team or an organization and can be replicated or adapted elsewhere. Best practices often take the form of guidelines, principles, or ideas that are endorsed by a person or governing body that attests to the viability of the best practice." (Gina Abudi & Brandon Toropov, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Best Practices for Small Business", 2011)

"A technique, method, process, discipline, incentive, or reward generally considered to be more effective at delivering a particular outcome than by other means." (Craig S Mullins, "Database Administration", 2012)

"In general, Best Practices refer to the methods, currently recognized within a given industry or discipline, to achieve a stated goal or objective. In the OPM3 context, Best Practices are achieved when an organization demonstrates consistent organizational project management processes evidenced by successful outcomes." (Project Management Institute, "Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3)" 3rd Ed, 2013)

"An effective way of doing something. It can relate to anything from writing program code to IT governance." (Marcia Kaufman et al, "Big Data For Dummies", 2013)

"Those methods, processes, or procedures that have been proven to be the most effective, based on real-world experience and measured results." (Robert F Smallwood, "Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices", 2014)

"Best practices are defined as commercial or professional procedures that are accepted or prescribed as being effective most of the time. It can also be considered a heuristic, in that is a rule of thumb that generally succeeds but is not guaranteed to always work in every instance." (Michael Winburn & Aaron Wheeler, "Cloud Storage Security", 2015)

"A 'benchmarking' approach where organisations determine who the leader in a particular practice is and then copy that approach. Useful for achieving efficiencies but may diminish differentiation if not used with caution at the strategic level." (Duncan Angwin & Stephen Cummings, "The Strategy Pathfinder" 3rd Ed., 2017)

"A proven activity or process that has been successfully used by multiple enterprises." (ISACA) 

"A superior method or innovative practice that contributes to the improved performance of an organization, usually recognized as best by other peer organizations." (American Society for Quality)