Best Practices are cringe

The term “best practice” makes me cringe. Because what's “best” today won't be in six months.

The real value of AI isn't ROI. It's adaptability. The ability to update your systems as fast as conditions change. And right now, systems are aging faster than they used to. What worked for 5 years now works for 6 months.

Years ago, I worked with Will Willoughby after he'd helped NASA get to the moon. He later created the famous and very effective Willoughby templates that increased reliability and were used across DOD acquisition. When I arrived as a young materials scientist in the mid 90s, I saw sections of those templates were obsolete. Everyone used them anyway. Because they were proven. Because changing them meant questioning the experts and changing the contracts.

Most people think proven frameworks and best practices should last forever. Engineers know everything has a service life.

What I figured out

Every framework has three parts.

• The principle - what you're protecting. Accurate estimates. Quality work. Customer trust. This doesn't change.

• The process - the steps you follow. Changes when conditions change.

• The tools - what you use. Changes constantly.

Most people defend all three equally.

An example

Estimating a project used to take your team 4 hours to pull past projects, check costs, calculate labor- all manual.

AI pulls relevant projects in seconds. It updates costs automatically. Then your team reviews in 45 minutes. Same accuracy. One-eighth the time.

The principle stayed. The tools changed. The process adapted.

Take away

Your system isn't bad. It's designed for conditions that change.

Plan on obsolescence of how you work.

Right now, with the rate of change, processes and tools are often changing more than once per year. You start using AI for the ROI but the superpower AI can give you, if you use it well, is adaptability.

Here’s my challenge to you: Pick one process this week. Ask: which parts assume conditions that no longer exist? Ask AI if you're uncertain. Test one update. Keep the principle. Change everything else that makes sense to change.

Best wishes,

Rose

P.S. If this sounds intriguing, I am offering this as a 3-week workshop session that does this for three of your processes. Same framework. Your actual workflows. https://www.designrosetta.com/3-week-implementation-cohort