Decision Support for Best Practices Lessons Learned
Decision support for best practices: Lessons learned on bridging the gap between research and applied pratice.
Today, everyone is looking at best practices for developing a system or making the right choice in acquiring system components. If the right best practices are applied, they help to avoid common problems and improve quality, cost, or both. However, finding and selecting an appropriate best practice is not always an easy endeavor. In most cases guidance, based on sound experience, is missing; often the best practice is too new, still under study, or the existing experiences do not fit the user 's context. This article reports on a program that tries to bridge the gap between rigorous empirical research and practical needs for guiding practitioners in selecting appropriate best practices.
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Many program managers would agree that using time-tested "Best Practices" can help to avoid common problems and increase the quality of a system, reduce development cost, or both. For instance, in a short survey at the 2004 Conference on the Acquisition of Software-Intensive Systems, 48 senior systems and software managers supported the use of Best Practices. However, the same survey indicated that it is hard to find such Best Practices. The survey identified the following reasons for this problem:
* Best practices often do not exist (i.e., they have not been publicly documented),
* People do not know of a certain best practice, or
* Best practices are not easily accessible (i.e., there is no central place to look for best practices).
The last point matches a more general study by the Delphi Group in which more than 65 percent of the interviewees agreed that finding the right information to do their job is difficult (Delphi, 2002).
Further research conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) concluded that barriers for the adoption of best practices included:
* the lack of selection criteria among practices within
Today, everyone is looking at best practices for developing a system or making the right choice in acquiring system components. If the right best practices are applied, they help to avoid common problems and improve quality, cost, or both. However, finding and selecting an appropriate best practice is not always an easy endeavor. In most cases guidance, based on sound experience, is missing; often the best practice is too new, still under study, or the existing experiences do not fit the user 's context. This article reports on a program that tries to bridge the gap between rigorous empirical research and practical needs for guiding practitioners in selecting appropriate best practices.
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Many program managers would agree that using time-tested "Best Practices" can help to avoid common problems and increase the quality of a system, reduce development cost, or both. For instance, in a short survey at the 2004 Conference on the Acquisition of Software-Intensive Systems, 48 senior systems and software managers supported the use of Best Practices. However, the same survey indicated that it is hard to find such Best Practices. The survey identified the following reasons for this problem:
* Best practices often do not exist (i.e., they have not been publicly documented),
* People do not know of a certain best practice, or
* Best practices are not easily accessible (i.e., there is no central place to look for best practices).
The last point matches a more general study by the Delphi Group in which more than 65 percent of the interviewees agreed that finding the right information to do their job is difficult (Delphi, 2002).
Further research conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) concluded that barriers for the adoption of best practices included:
* the lack of selection criteria among practices within
References: Dangle, K., Dwinnell, L., Hickok, J., & Turner, R. (2005, May). Introducing the Department of Defense acquisition best practices clearinghouse. CrossTalk, 18(5), 4-5. Defense Acquisition University Delphi White Paper. (2002). Taxonomy & Content Classification--Market Milestone Report. Boston, MA: Delphi Group. Koennecker, A., Jeffery, R., & Low, G