I will start right out that I am a believer in best practices. I know several that work 100% of the time and many that work most of the time.
One that works all of the time? Treat people with respect.
One that works almost all of time? Make work visible.
Ironically, many in the Agile community say there are no best practices and then proceed to tell you a few you have to do.
For example, in Scrum you must have cross-functional teams, do iterations and have daily stand-ups (just to name a few).
Of course, you can say "well, it's not that we're dogmatic, it's just that you're not doing Scrum if you're not doing these."
You know, that's reasonable. So tell me when and where I want to do Scrum, tell me where it best applies.
Funny, never hear that.
So today, i challenge you to look at some of your most treasured practices. Ones you just know are right.
Ask why? If you've not challenged them, looking to see why and where they work, maybe there's something better.
If you are interested, here are two blogs I've written that may be of interest:
