www.rittmanmead.com [email protected] @rittmanmead www.facebook.com/rittmanmead Why Best Practices Suck
 
 Robin Moffatt Principal Consultant, Rittman Mead 

www.rittmanmead.com [email protected] @rittmanmead www.facebook.com/rittmanmead The Additional Problem 

www.rittmanmead.com [email protected] @rittmanmead www.facebook.com/rittmanmead 

www.rittmanmead.com [email protected] @rittmanmead www.facebook.com/rittmanmead When taken from a 
 position of knowledge and understanding 
 best practices can be useful to 
 codify existing knowledge Good Best Practices? 

www.rittmanmead.com [email protected] @rittmanmead www.facebook.com/rittmanmead Bad Best Practices! •Silver Bullets •“Laundry Lists” of settings to change •Random Jiggling •Absolutes without context […] “I will jiggle things randomly until they unbreak” is not acceptable. — Linus Torvalds, April 2011 

www.rittmanmead.com [email protected] @rittmanmead www.facebook.com/rittmanmead Guesswork Is Risky If you don’t know why what you did worked, then you don’t know that you’ve not caused ‘collateral damage’ 

www.rittmanmead.com [email protected] @rittmanmead www.facebook.com/rittmanmead 

www.rittmanmead.com [email protected] @rittmanmead www.facebook.com/rittmanmead How Long? If you’re just guessing, you can’t honestly estimate the remaining time to solve the problem 

www.rittmanmead.com [email protected] @rittmanmead www.facebook.com/rittmanmead Déjà vu? If you don’t know what the problem was, you’re doomed to repeat the same mistake again in the future 

www.rittmanmead.com [email protected] @rittmanmead www.facebook.com/rittmanmead If It Looks Like a Duck … Even obvious problems aren’t always obvious 

www.rittmanmead.com [email protected] @rittmanmead www.facebook.com/rittmanmead 

www.rittmanmead.com [email protected] @rittmanmead www.facebook.com/rittmanmead Knob Twiddler? Do You Want to be the Monkey or the Organ Grinder? 

www.rittmanmead.com [email protected] @rittmanmead www.facebook.com/rittmanmead The only “best practice” you should be using all the time is “Use Your Brain”. — Steven Robbins / Tom Kyte 

www.rittmanmead.com [email protected] @rittmanmead www.facebook.com/rittmanmead #EOF ✴ email: [email protected] ✴ web: http://ritt.md/rmoff ✴ twitter: @rmoff ✴ IRC: rmoff / #obihackers / freenode