Best practices are used to maintain quality as an alternative to mandatory legislated standards and can be based on self-assessment or benchmarking. A best practice is a method that has produced excellent results in other situations and can be adapted to your current situation. This may be in the form of a formula, procedure, a development methodology for software, or a specification template. Best practices may also be considered to be ever evolving. In addition, best practice is considered by some as a business buzzword used to describe the process of developing and following a standard way of doing things that multiple organizations can use.