Best Practices

Authority (in software development) sometimes refers to mythical best practices. One might note that in itself, this has not and for long been a best practice. In fact, it strikes as an odd reminiscence of past times.

Among the glaring issues with the concept, is the obvious aporia with the establishment of a best practice: clearly, somebody must has come up with it (best practices cannot grow) at some point, and then, they were obviously not following any best practice.

A clear issue with the practice of following best practices, is the resulting conservatism: no progress is possible, if one follows practices of the past.

The mere concept hides the implicit assumption of the existence and unicity of a known practice which would apply, universally (in an implicitly defined context). This implied assumption is the signature of (now obsolete) modernity.

Successful organisations and activities cannot be monolithic: they have to tolerate a certain amount of competition and divergence (even temporary). Is this a best practice?