Best Practice is "good working practice that has been proven to work based on results that can be measured", according to the CCTA. It also gives the customers and the providers of IT a common understanding and perhaps more importantly a common vocabulary when talking about IT provision which is increasingly important where a number of partners and/or providers have to work together. The theory is great and should make our life simple, we buy an IT solution and then use "best practice" to manage it!, but, which one and how do you decide.

Well currently there are many options you can choose from; ITIL, BS15000, ISO20000, cobIT, ISO17799, eTOM, ISO9000:2000, CMMI, etc. Then if you add to that the regulatory and legal requirements; SOX, HIPPA, CFR21 Part 11, DPA, BASELII, etc. To add to the complexity of the situation, many of the new requirements overlap or even contradict each other so translating them into specific business and IT changes usually proves to be extremely challenging for all involved. As a result, IT organisations are having to ensure that systems meet the specifics of each set of regulations and in many cases satisfy different sets of auditors that the rules are being adhered to.
Certification in many of these standards by itself does not appear to be of great benefit, the benfits can only be gained from really buying in to the ethos of process improvement.

I personally believe that ITIL used as it was intended as a framework can provide guidance to enable most of the problems encountered to be solved. However hard it may prove process improvement is not a choice Forrester estimate that 30% of $1bn+ companies are experimenting with ITIL alone with approx 13% having fully implemented it. IT by itself is no longer the differentiator it once was. Cost constraints around IT budgets mean that more and more companies are looking to maximise their IT investment using process optimization and continuous improvement over hardware and software spend.