Good Practice Vs Best Practice

I have observed that most of us confuse between Good Practice and Best Practice. Whenever it is recommended that a practice should be followed, it is said to be a best practice. When this practice becomes a part of life, it becomes a good practice. So a good practice is always automatically followed by everyone concerned. We can say that a best practice when followed over a period of time becomes a good practice.

Let us take couple of examples from our day to day life. Initially when the seat belts were introduced in cars, it was said to be a best practice to wear the seat belt. Eventually, wearing seat belt became a habit and thus a good practice.

Another example is wearing helmets. Initially people were not used to wearing helmets and thus it was said to be best practice to wear a helmet. But over a period of time, in most countries, wearing helmet became a habit and it became a good practice.

Let’s take an example from ITSM space. For an organization where service desk has been recently introduced, it is a best practice to call the service desk in case of any issue, help or information required. But eventually when the process matures, it becomes a practice to call the service desk for any support issues and hence a good practice.