Michael Haupt has pointed us at a great blog post about how software development organizations frequently slip into behaviors driven by the logical fallacy post hoc ergo propter hoc (that follows this, therefore this causes that), or more colloquially "cargo cult" practices. DomK goes into detail about how many organizations blindly follow "Best Practices," without ever questioning if there could be better approaches that are much better or evolving these practices over time. And Michael links to an example.
I posted about this antipattern with respect to agile practices in 2014. Michael's summary and advice are actually better and more general. Focus on the success measures of the mission and be prepared to change your practices when they are no longer optimal. "The nines don't matter if your customers are unhappy." Keep looking for how to get better at accomplishing your mission and don't assume "best practices" are "best" for your team. Improve, continuously.
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