Bad, Better, Best in IT

Bad: Cubicle 

Better: Office 

Best: Whatever works best for you.

Bad: Meetings without agendas. 

Better: Meetings with agendas. 

Best: Meetings whose need is so obvious to everyone that no agenda is needed.

Bad: Specs, waterfall, Systems Development Life Cycle. 

Better: Prototyping, agile, scrum. 

Best: Developers with enough domain knowledge to just build it.

Bad: No documentation. 

Better: Documentation. 

Best: No documentation needed.

Bad: No formal process. 

Better: Formal process. 

Best: People so much bigger than their jobs so that process is rarely 

relied upon.

Bad: Theory without experience 

Better: Experience without theory 

Best: Both

Bad: Help desk without programmers. 

Better: Programmers available to customers. 

Best: Code that just works.

Bad: Phone calls 

Better: Emails 

Best: Application software that encapsulates required communication

Bad: Code with early exits. 

Better: Code without early exits. 

Best: Code so simple because of the underlying data structure that the 

early exit debate is moot.

Bad: Bugs 

Better: Fixes 

Best: Enough 9's to never notice.

Bad: programmer error 

Better: user error 

Best: What's an error?

Bad: Missing deadlines 

Better: Hitting deadlines 

Best: A track record so good that deadlines are never given

Bad: Complex org chart 

Better: Simple org chart 

Best: Technology so sophisticated, less people are needed

Bad: Non-technical boss 

Better: Technical boss 

Best: No boss

Bad: Management 

Better: Leadership 

Best: Self-motivation

Bad: Best practices, with a Capital "B" (industry standards) 

Better: best practices, with a small "b" (what we figured out) 

Best: Just do your fucking job.