Best Practices are wisdom. Instead of reinventing what others already know, technology professionals learn from their colleagues and then willingly share valuable information about what works and what doesn’t. Trying to decide which best practice is best is a journey in analyzing the details of the practice as well as taking an honest look at how we achieved the results. Best Practices exist in every field from food preparation to medicine. Much of what technology professionals have learned comes from the engineering field – although I would argue that we have also learned a great deal from the field of applied psychology as well! If you are ready to ramp up your best practice skills then fasten your seat belt and take a trip with me down the wild roller coaster of Best Practices!

Are We Different From Doctors?
Imagine a medical doctor who did not learn from his colleagues. Actually, it was not long ago that many doctors were often on their own for long periods of time. Imagine being a country doctor in the old west where your only means of consulting with a colleague was via a telegraph or a two week trip in a stage coach. Fortunately, today we can enjoy the benefits of medical doctors instantly consulting around the world via technology. I would certainly expect and demand that any doctor caring for a member of my family would always consult with other experts, where appropriate, and give my loved one the benefit of best practices in the medical field. Similarly, we expect that engineers and other technology professionals embrace best practices for the best results.

Having a Heart Attack
One of my greatest joys in life has been the many hours that I have spent volunteering as an emergency medical technician often prowling the busy streets in Brooklyn, New York in the early morning hours on the “graveyard” shift. Sometimes almost the entire shift would go by without a single call, followed by chaos as precious minutes flew by while we tried to save someone’s life who was often severely or critically injured. I treated people who were in terrible car accidents, shot, stabbed, and one who literally died in front of me (fortunately bringing her back with a defibrillator). At other times all we could do was keep the patient alive long enough for the paramedics to arrive with their advanced life support. During the long quiet periods we studied and practiced our lifesaving procedures over and over again. Our worst nightmare was making a mistake that could harm someone or just not help them in the best way possible. Best Practices in this context meant the difference between life and death and all of us took our role as EMTs very seriously.

Software Runs the World
The Software that gave my defibrillator it’s intelligence was no doubt created by a developer who had skills that were similar to the skills of the software engineers working for the defense contractors where I consulted on branching strategies. If we made a mistake the end result could possibly be a plane flying into another plane. Today software runs everything from our ovens to the Bank ATMs that deliver cash so that you can enjoy a Saturday night in the city.

The Best Practices Smorgasbord
Taking a walk through the CM Crossroads website you will no doubt see discussions on many best practices including picking the right source code management tool, customizing automated workflows and continuous integration. All of these competencies involve best practices that are certainly “best” for the specific purpose for which they are intended. Branching strategies are a strong focus for many CM experts as demonstrated by the success of the SCM Patterns made popular by Brad, Robert and Steve in the Agile CM Column. Mario has certainly taken off with his book on Adapting Agile for CM. I was delighted to give him a Chapter on Standards and Frameworks for Agile in that book which I hope that you will read and enjoy. There are so many Best Practices that you might really have trouble figuring out which one is really best. I don’t find this decision very challenging though and I know exactly which best practice is best.

In the Beginning
I am one of the original CM Crossroads writers and I recall thinking about what I wanted to focus on in my column. I decided that the column name of “Behaviorally Speaking” gave me the right balance between the “people” side of process improvement and the technical procedures that are the focus of getting the work completed on a day to day basis. My article on Overcoming Resistance to change has been clicked through by over 18,000 readers. But that is not where this all started.

Drive Out Fear
At the start of my career, I was greatly impacted by the writings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming and his 14 points. The most important, to me, has been the resolution to “drive our fear”. Yet today I find that this is very much the threat to our success as it was when Deming made this point and communicated his vision for Quality Management. I troll the online discussion groups on CM Crossroads and all over the internet. I am often distressed to see how often technology professionals address each other in a way that is less than completely respectful. It is pretty common for newbies to be dressed down by other “experts” – who somehow feel that they have a license to demonstrate their prowess at the expense of others. I believe that the best practice that we need to promote is respectful and collaborative dialog. This happened to me recently when I was asking a newbie question on a technology that I have struggled with for some time. Fortunately, I just don’t get discouraged, but I worry that others might. I think that it is essential to remember that CM is a team sport.

Full Contact Sports
I believe that it is essential that we promote Social Networking as a safe place to share and promote best practices. I pledge to use my skills and networks to run “block” when necessary and guarantee that our community is safe for beginners and experts as well. If you have an opinion then that is great, but lets all remember that CM is a team sport and we all need to work together. I have also written a book on CM Best Practices which is being published by Addison-Wesley Professional. The initial pre-publication manuscript is already available through Safari Rough Cuts (http://my.safaribooksonline.com/roughcuts). I love the idea of sharing what I have written before it has been fully edited and completed. This means that you are invited to become part of my editorial review board! You can follow my progress with this effort on the website that I am creating for the book http://cmbestpractices.com

Conclusion
We have many best practices that involve strong technical and process engineering skills. In my opinion the most important best practice is to promote open and honest collaboration that is free from fear. We all need to work together to follow Dr. Deming’s guidance to drive out fear. CM is a team sport and I am so grateful that you are a member of my team. Now let’s go “long” and I will throw you the ball for our next touchdown!!!!!!

Bob Aiello is the Editor-in-Chief for CM Crossroads and the President of Yellow Spider, Inc. (http://yellowspiderinc.com ) where he specializes in Software Process Improvement including Software Configuration and Release Management. Mr. Aiello has over 25 years experience as a technical manager in several top NYC Financial Services firms where he had company-wide responsibility for CM, often providing hands-on technical support for enterprise Source Code Management tools, SOX/Cobit compliance, build engineering, continuous integration and automated application deployment. Bob is the Vice Chair of the IEEE 828 Standards working group (CM Planning) and is a member of the IEEE Software and Systems Engineering Standards Committee (S2ESC) Management Board. He is a long-standing member of the Steering Committee of the NYC Software Process Improvement Network (CitySPIN), where he serves as the chair of the CM SIG. Mr. Aiello holds a Masters in Industrial Psychology from NYU and a B.S. in Computer Science and Math from Hofstra University. Bob is the author of CM Best Practices: Practical Methods that Work in the Real World, Addison-Wesley Professional (http://cmbestpractices.com ). You may contact Mr. Aiello at raiello@acm.org or link with him at http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobaiello

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