practice
a customary way of operation or behavior
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise a customary way of acting, assess how it is enacted and sustained, and judge whether to support, adapt, interrupt or retire it.
A practice is a recurrent, socially recognizable way of carrying out an activity, reproduced through shared know-how, materials, and understandings rather than solely through an explicit rule.
It can be Recognise candidate enactments and assess whether they belong to the same practice; Compare observed behavior with practitioners' accounts and formal instructions; Identify missing conditions for competent participation or continued enactment; Assess the effects and acceptability of continuing the practice for affected parties; Propose a bounded adaptation or trial within the relevant authority and participation constraints; Track whether a practice persists, changes, is suspended or is replaced.
Distinguishing features
There is evidence that the way of acting is customary for identified practitioners in identified circumstances; a single occurrence alone does not establish a practice.
The pattern describes enacted behavior; a documented instruction with no evidence of use is a procedure or proposal, not an established practice.
Different enactments can count as the same practice despite variation; its identity does not depend on replaying one event exactly.
The practice is a way of operating or behaving, rather than merely an intended outcome or a capacity to act.
Automaticity, collective participation and deliberate rehearsal are possible features, but none should be assumed from the word practice alone.
Scope
+ The recurring way of acting and the situations in which it is customary
+ Practitioners, participation roles and expectations about competent enactment
+ Actual enactments, tolerated variations and departures from the customary pattern
+ How the practice is learned, reinforced and sustained
+ Evidence of effects, constraints and changes in continued use
- A particular action or event considered independently of the customary pattern
- A prescribed procedure or policy considered independently of what people actually do
- A project or plan organised around a bounded future result
- An individual's capability or automatic habit considered independently of the customary way of acting
- The organisation, community or tools that participate in or support the practice
Characteristics
- Practitioner scope
- Individuals or groups for whom the way of acting is customary Prevents a local practice from being attributed to everyone in an organisation or domain.
- Occasion of enactment
- Recorded triggers, situations or recurring occasions Identifies when the practice would normally be expected to occur.
- Observed uptake
- Enactments divided by eligible occasions within a stated practitioner scope and observation period; unknown when occasions cannot be counted Distinguishes customary use from isolated use without imposing a universal frequency threshold.
- Expectation of adherence
- Optional, preferred, socially expected, formally required, contested or unknown; attributed to a source Separates common behavior from behavior people are expected or required to follow.
- Enactment mode
- Individual, coordinated collective, independently shared or mixed Shows whether changing one practitioner's behavior can change the practice or requires coordination.
- Accepted variation
- Recorded variants and conditions under which each is accepted by identified practitioners Helps distinguish legitimate adaptation from departure or the emergence of another practice.
- Current use state
- Emerging, established, intermittent, suspended, discontinued, disputed or unknown; scoped and dated Supports decisions about whether the practice can still be relied upon.
- Supporting dependencies
- Required competencies, tools, access, resources and coordinating practices Identifies what must be available for enactment and what could interrupt it.
- Observed effects
- Links to observed outcomes, affected parties and supporting evidence, with attribution uncertainty Supports assessment without treating customary use as proof of effectiveness or legitimacy.
Analytical facets
- substance
- activity
- origin
- conceptual
- agency
- inert
- mobility
- not-applicable
- scale
- not-applicable
- affordances
- observable
Also called
+104
Where this came from
oewn:2024 · CC BY 4.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 33 questions.
Customary pattern What practitioners customarily do and what makes different enactments instances of the same practice.
An agent must identify a recurring way of acting without mistaking a label, isolated event or written prescription for an established practice.
Pattern recognition
The observable behavior and situated evidence that establish customary use.
Customary way of acting
Record the pattern of behavior and the evidence supporting its status as customary for particular practitioners.
- What do practitioners characteristically do, and in which situations? definition
- Which observations or practitioner accounts establish customary use, for whom and over what period? provenance
Identity and variation
The features that hold the practice together across differing enactments.
Same-practice test
Record which features define the practice and which may vary without changing its identity.
- Which changes in sequence, participants, tools or manner still count as this practice, and according to whom? boundary
- What would distinguish a departure from this practice from an instance of a different practice? boundary
Situated enactment When the practice occurs and what makes its enactment possible.
A customary pattern can be misjudged if eligible occasions, resource conditions or coordination requirements are ignored.
Occasions and uptake
The situations that invite enactment and the extent to which practitioners actually enact it.
Use on eligible occasions
Record observed use relative to relevant opportunities, including omissions and their explanations.
- What makes an occasion eligible for this practice, and what circumstances exclude it? boundary
- Across a stated period and practitioner scope, how often was the practice enacted when an eligible occasion occurred? measurement
- Which missed enactments reflect exceptions, inability to act or declining use? definition
Enactment dependencies
The competencies, materials and coordination needed to carry out the practice.
Conditions for performing
Record the conditions that enable enactment and the consequences when those conditions are absent.
- Which skills, tools, access rights, resources or preceding activities are needed to enact this practice? definition
- When a needed condition is missing, which substitutions, postponements or interruptions are acceptable? action
Participation and transmission Who carries the practice and how people learn to enact and sustain it.
Continued enactment depends on practitioners and learning arrangements, which may be tacit and absent from formal documentation.
Practitioner roles
Participation, coordination and recognition of competent enactment.
Participation and competence
Record who performs the practice, how participation is arranged and how competence is recognised.
- Who enacts the practice, and which parts require coordination with other participants? definition
- How do practitioners recognise competent enactment, and whose judgment is accepted or disputed? provenance
Learning and continuity
The means by which the practice is acquired, reinforced and retained.
Transmission pathways
Record how practitioners learn the practice and which arrangements sustain it as people and circumstances change.
- How is the practice learned through instruction, observation, participation, repetition or other means? provenance
- What would enable a new practitioner to participate competently, especially where essential knowledge is tacit? action
- Which departures of experienced practitioners or losses of shared resources would threaten continuity? boundary
Expectations and effects Why the practice is followed, what adherence means and what its enactment appears to produce.
An agent must distinguish familiarity, obligation and demonstrated benefit before recommending continuation or intervention.
Custom and prescription
The relationship between actual conduct and expectations about how people should act.
Adherence expectations
Record whether adherence is optional, expected or required, and how these expectations relate to observed enactment.
- Who expects this practice to be followed, and what supports that expectation? provenance
- Where does customary enactment differ from formal instructions or stated practitioner expectations? boundary
- What responses to departure are permitted, and who may authorise an exception? action
Consequences of enactment
Reported purposes and observed effects, including effects on people other than practitioners.
Benefits, costs and harms
Record claimed purposes separately from evidence of outcomes and uncertainty about their causes.
- What reasons do practitioners give for following the practice, including when no explicit purpose is stated? provenance
- What benefits, costs or harms have been observed, for whom, and against what comparison? measurement
- What evidence supports attributing those effects to the practice rather than to surrounding conditions? provenance
Persistence and change The practice's current standing and the conditions for adapting or ending its use.
A practice may persist informally, change unevenly or stop without formal retirement; an agent needs evidence of actual transition.
Current standing
Whether the practice remains customary within its stated scope.
Continuation or disuse
Record current use and distinguish inactivity caused by absent occasions from suspension or discontinuation.
- What recent evidence indicates that this practice is emerging, established, intermittent, suspended or discontinued? provenance
- Does a gap in enactment indicate disuse, or have no eligible occasions occurred? boundary
Deliberate adaptation
How changes can be attempted, assessed and incorporated into customary behavior.
Change and adoption
Record proposed changes, authority to act, participation needs and evidence that a change has entered actual use.
- Who can change their own enactment, and which changes require agreement or authorisation from others? action
- What bounded trial and stopping conditions would allow an adaptation to be assessed? action
- What observations would show that the revised way has become customary or that the previous way has ceased? measurement
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- social practice (everyday routinized activity as treated in practice theory)
- professional practice (the licensed or occupational way of doing a trade)
- best practice (a method an industry treats as most effective)
- standard of practice (the benchmark of expected professional conduct)
- safe work practice (generic do's and don'ts for a class of hazardous tasks)
- clinical practice (patterns of care delivery in medicine and allied health)
- organizational or management practice (named capability areas such as ITIL practices or GMP)
- customary or cultural practice (community-held ways of greeting, ritual, and etiquette)
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of practice this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- WordNet - practice.n.01 - 'a customary way of operation or behavior' - The Princeton WordNet sense this registry entry is scoped to; no ISO or taxonomic code names the concept itself.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of practice this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- ISO 9000:2015 and ISO 9001:2015 (International Organization for Standardization) - quality-management vocabulary that defines process and procedure, the documented forms organizations often label as practices.
- Good Manufacturing Practice / current GMP (World Health Organization; U.S. Food and Drug Administration; European Medicines Agency) - obligatory production practices in medicines and related goods.
- ITIL 4 practice framework (Axelos) - named service-management practices used as the operating vocabulary of many IT organizations.
- Professional practice statutes and college standards (e.g. California Business and Professions Code §2725 and 16 CCR §§1379/1474 for nursing; provincial veterinary colleges) - set and enforce a profession's standard of practice.
- Occupational health and safety statutes requiring safe work practices (Canada: one federal and thirteen provincial/territorial OHS jurisdictions; analogous duties in other national OHS regimes).
- Common-law standard of care in professional negligence (courts) - what a reasonably prudent practitioner of similar training would have done in like circumstances.
- Best-practice regimes as soft law (international organizations and industry bodies) - exemplary models adopted voluntarily, without the force of a treaty or statute.
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of practice this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- A surgical team treating preoperative hand hygiene as accepted professional practice.
- An IT service desk running an ITIL incident-management practice rather than a one-off ticket process.
- A construction employer posting safe work practices for ladder use, distinct from a lockout/tagout job procedure.
- A veterinarian or pharmacist judged by a regulator against the profession's published and unpublished standard of practice.
- Diplomats performing summitry through unarticulated scripts (bureaucrat, mediator, hero) rather than a written procedure.
- A pharmaceutical plant audited for conformity with GMP.
- Communities reproducing greeting practices (handshake, bow, cheek kiss) as customary public behavior.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of practice this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- adoption or prevalence in a defined population of practitioners or organizations - 0-100 - percent
- observed compliance with a named practice - 0-100 of sampled instances - percent
- performance frequency - several times per hour (e.g. hand hygiene) to yearly (e.g. an audit practice) - events per unit time
- time to competent independent performance - days to several years, depending on the practice - time
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of practice this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Malpractice or unprofessional practice: enacted doing falls below the standard of practice or standard of care.
- Practice drift and workarounds that silently bypass written controls.
- Cargo-cult copying of a 'best practice' whose form does not fit the local materials, skills, or incentives.
- Tacit practice becoming invisible, unteachable, and lost when experienced people leave.
- Over-codification that crowds out situated judgment the practice actually requires.
- Informal customary practice that conflicts with statute or safety rules.
- Lock-in of an obsolete practice that continues because it is second nature.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of practice this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- In US and UK professional English, 'a practice' often names a firm's business (a medical or legal practice); social theory uses 'practice' for the activity itself.
- British spelling splits noun practice from verb practise; American English uses practice for both.
- Canadian OHS writing distinguishes generic 'safe work practices' from task-specific 'safe job procedures'; other jurisdictions collapse both under 'procedures' or 'SWPs'.
- Greeting and etiquette practices differ sharply by culture (handshake, bow, cheek kiss) while remaining the same kind of thing.
- Who may lawfully 'practice' a profession is set by jurisdiction-specific practice acts and colleges, not by a global code.
- In international law, 'best practices' are typically voluntary soft law; some domestic regulators treat published professional practices as near-mandatory.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of practice this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- habit - A habit is an individual's often automatic repetition; a practice is socially shared and accountable, even when it feels like second nature.
- custom - A custom is a traditional, culture-bearing way of doing; a practice need not be traditional and is routinely occupational or organizational.
- procedure - ISO 9000:2015 defines a procedure as a specified way to carry out an activity or process; a practice can exist as tacit competent doing without a written specification.
- process - ISO 9000:2015 defines a process as interrelated activities that convert inputs into an intended result and that end when that result is delivered; a practice is the ongoing, improvable way of working around that doing.
- policy - A policy states rules or direction; a practice is the enacted pattern, which may conform to or diverge from the policy.
- routine - A routine is a relatively fixed sequence of actions; a practice can include variation, judgment, and situated repair.
- skill - A skill is an individual's capability; a practice is the organized social activity in which that capability is exercised with others, tools, and settings.
- norm - A norm is a rule of what ought to be done; a practice is what is actually done, which may instantiate, stretch, or violate the norm.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of practice this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- Practice theory - Treats practices as what people do in everyday life, organized by habitus and taken-for-granted doxa rather than by conscious rule-following.
- Practice Theories - Defines social practices as routinized behavior integrating bodily know-how, objects, technology, understandings, and emotions.
- The Constitution of Social Practices (excerpt) - Describes practice as customary or competent activity based on skills acquired through experience, training, and routine performance, embodied as tacit know-how.
- Theorizing Social Context: Rethinking Behavioral Theory - Uses Bourdieu to treat social practice as behavior that both arises from and remakes its social context, not as isolated individual acts.
- Key Differences Between Processes, Projects, and Procedures - Quotes ISO 9000:2015 definitions of process and procedure, which are the documented neighbours against which 'practice' is routinely distinguished in organizations.
- Practice vs Process: What's The Difference? - Enterprise-IT distinction: a process is a bounded sequence to an end; a practice is a more holistic, ongoing, improvable way of working (hence 'best practice', not 'best process').
- Routines vs process, procedure, work instruction, practice and value stream - Service-management usage in which practices are generalized work instructions derived from process logic.
- Standards and the Role of the Regulator - Separates standard of practice (profession's essential expectations) from standard of care and from clinical guidelines in professional regulation.
- Safe Work Practices in Canada: What Employers Must Know - Documents the Canadian OHS distinction between generic safe work practices and task-specific safe job procedures, under fourteen jurisdictions rather than one national law.
- Best Practices - Treats 'best practices' in public international law as a non-binding soft-law method of setting exemplary models through horizontal cooperation.
- Habit, Custom, Practice, Routine - Lexical distinctions used in English: habit is personal and automatic; custom is traditional and communal; practice is an accepted method of a profession or group.
What the second pass must settle
- What evidence is sufficient to call a way of acting customary when eligible occasions are rare or historical observation is limited?
- Where should the registry draw the boundaries among practice, habit, routine, custom and procedure, especially for an individual's customary behavior?
- Does this entry include deliberate rehearsal as a distinct sense of practice, or only when rehearsal itself forms a customary way of acting?
- How should conflicting practitioner judgments about the identity, competence criteria or accepted variants of a practice be represented?
- When a practice changes unevenly across groups, what criteria distinguish local variants, successor practices and separate registered things?