Often, you may find that your business problem has already been dealt with, in whole or in part, by other government agencies, private and non-profit organizations, or academic researchers. Identifying and evaluating these solutions are important early steps in your project planning. There is an abundance of information and expertise in the IT community, as well as elsewhere in the public sector, that can contribute to solving problems that are common to similar organizations. In particular, there is a great deal to learn from those cases where things did not go as well as expected. Best practices research involves learning both what works and what does not work, based on the relevant experience of others.

Find various solutions. Best practices research involves identification and consideration of various solutions to the problem, or the components of the problem, that a project is intended to address.

Learn from others' success and failure. Such research may take different forms, but the ultimate goal is to learn from the experience of others so you can avoid "recreating the wheel" or replicating the mistakes of others.

Early project task. Best practices research should be conducted during the start-up phase and continued over the life of the project.

Understand the problem. By finding out how other organizations tackled a similar problem, you can develop a better understanding of your problem from multiple and varied perspectives.

Find potential solutions that have already been tried. You can identify individuals and organizations that have solved, or tried to solve, problems similar to yours. You can learn from their experiences and gain feedback on your proposed and ongoing project activities.

Identify methods and resources. Use this tool to identify methods and mechanisms for evaluating IT solutions. In addition, current practices research is an effective way of identifying sources of relevant technical expertise and technology.

Classify all parts of the problem. By identifying all relevant components of a problem, you can avoid the trap of "treating the symptoms" of the problem instead of the problem itself.

Assumptions about others' work. When gathering data about other organizations' solutions, you must make assumptions as to the appropriateness or relevance of their experiences to the problem you're facing.

Reliance on published data and people's memories. In order to get information about current and best practices, you must rely on published reports and recollections of people involved in those projects. This can limit the scope of your research.

No one wants to discuss failures. Organizations and individuals are more likely to share stories about their successes than their failures. But both kinds of stories can provide valuable information.