3 Key Elements for Delivering Best Practice #1...Documentation

#1...Documentation  

When delivering IT projects, you always hear people and companies talk about best practice.

Best practice is defined by one source as “a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to any alternatives because it produces results that are superior to those achieved by other means”.

I often wonder who or what sets the standards for best practice? What is the global standard that makes it “best” based on? And how do you even know it is the best versus better than average? 

In this article, I will explore this further and discuss how best practice is delivered.

Over the next few articles, I will share with you the three key elements for delivering best practice. Whilst my focus is on IT projects specifically, these also apply across a broader range of industries . 

Today we start with the first element, Documentation.

In my opinion, the difference between good practice and best practice is found in one key aspect - the attention to detail.  

In my dispute resolution work, the strategy I adopt as a fundamental principle is a fact-based approach. What are the facts? What actually happened? This can’t be based on an opinion or someone’s version of what they think happened. It needs to be factual. 

The first action in any investigation is to establish the facts of the matter in dispute. As we all know, when trying to find out the facts, different people will have their own account of what happened. Ask two parties and you will always get two versions -  somewhere in the middle lies the truth!

In order to gather the facts on a dispute case, you need to rely on documentation and what has been captured in writing.  As a general rule, when there is a lack of attention to detail, it usually means that documentation will be poor too. That makes arguing any position very difficult if the written detail is missing.

Documentation comes in many different forms - it may be the official minutes taken from a meeting, your own set of meeting notes (when there are no official minutes), or the emails exchanged between parties. These forms will always be reliable when needed. 

However today there are many decisions made over a coffee. No notes, no emails, no minutes - just conversation. All of a sudden we have more decisions being made and more actions taken based on a conversation in a cafe, in the hallway or in some other informal setting. At the time it seems innocuous and unnecessary to put it in writing as you both agreed to whatever it is that you’ve now actioned. Right? Wrong!

Let’s dig into this a bit further and fast track forward a few months when things have started to go wrong with a project. The pressure is on, the mood has changed and perhaps one of the key decision makers from the project has been moved on and is no longer in the company. 

Someone new is appointed and they start to ask questions. They want to investigate how and when did the problems begin. Your actions and decisions are under scrutiny. They come across a critical decision that was made and they ask you about it.

When was this discussed? Who was consulted? What was agreed? Where was it documented?

In this decision made over a coffee and from that conversation, you did what had been agreed to. However there is nothing in writing because you didn’t document the meeting or put it in an email. What evidence do you have to support the decision that was made? Where is the agreement to proceed based on that understanding?

You explain that this was verbally agreed to with their senior manager - that same manager who has since left the company! And so the problem begins...

Documentation is a critical element to adopting a best practice approach. Whether you are the program director, project manager or consultant, if you are committed to embracing best practice, you must make a commitment to your documentation. 

In every meeting, you should take your own notes or arrange a note-taker to sit in on critical meetings. Major decisions must always be captured in writing at the time, not later when invariably details are forgotten. Often capturing the exact words that may have been used is necessary and later you won’t remember. 

“In coffee meetings, hallway conversations or other informal forums, when important decisions are made, develop a habit of following them up with an email confirming what was discussed and agreed to.”

If possible ask for a response too, ideally an agreement to proceed in writing...before proceeding. It is not that hard to write out a quick few lines in an email such as -

“Thanks again for the coffee this morning. Just a quick note to confirm that as discussed, we agree that we will proceed with.......etc etc

Please let me know if there are any concerns so we can get started on this tomorrow.”

Documentation is one critical element of best practice. When I investigate the facts of a case, I will commonly identify where there was an important decision or action that was pivotal to the problems that followed. My first question to you would be - when did the customer raise the issue? Who was involved in the discussion? When did they agree to the decision? And the big one...do you have their decision on this in writing?

The ‘ideal’ outcome is that a situation is discussed in a meeting and there are formal minutes to rely upon. However you can’t assume nor rely on ‘ideals’! Best practice is all about having routines and processes that ensure you are well prepared for circumstances that are not ideal. 

Make documentation a part of your best practice regime, be fastidious about capturing important moments in writing. Even if it is just notes to record what happened with no reason to share with someone else. Always be ready for when someone like me comes along and asks for the proof to backup your version of what happened. Then it is no longer a question of ‘if’ you have it documented. 

In my next article, we will explore the second key element for best practice, Communication.