The #1 Tip to Improve IT Process for Small and Medium Business

posted by Mike Mazzolini

The amount of technology that small and medium business implement these days is creating a significant amount of IT process. This in turn can put great demand on the organization to administer and manage these growing and changing processes with limited IT resources. Fortunately, by following this one simple tip, SMB can significantly improve their IT processes and more importantly the business.

Avoid Duplication

Avoiding duplication is principle that resonates with many programmers - especially those that have worked on projects over a long time. Programmers understand the many ways, in which, duplication can arise and more importantly how it can create more work and additional risk to any environment.

#1 Tip: Use the DRY Principle

Ok, so now you know to avoid duplication, but how? Use the "DRY principle? What the heck is that you ask?" It stands for "Don't Repeat Yourself" as described by Andrew Hunt, David Thomas. The Programmatic Programmer (Addison-Wesley, 2003), p. 27.

What's important to understand for small and medium organizations is that this principle should not only apply to  programming but rather to all IT processes. So, make sure that as you implement business and support processes that it is done once and becomes a piece of knowledge that accurately represents a solution. This way it can be referenced and reused as your system changes and grows.

Applying this simple principle will go a long way in helping you to avoid duplication and simplify the ongoing maintenance of your systems as the business and organization change and grow.