A"best practice" refers to: a policy or procedure that is unusually effective. a method of performing an activity or business process that consistently delivers superior results compared to other approaches and that at least one company has demonstrated works particularly well in terms of delivering operating excellence. a strategy-critical activity that results in sustainable competitive advantage. a value chain activity that is a company's distinctive competence. a particular value chain activity that management has given top priority to performing in world-class fashion.

Employees at a library check out books to patrons. books have an isbn and a name. the library sometimes has multiple copies of the same book. books have one or more authors. a patron is an individual who has an active (non-expired) library card. for each library card, we store the person's first and last names and their address. for each employee, we store their employee id, current salary, first and last name and their address. we also store the employee id of their current manager. each time we check out a book to a patron we need to store the date of the transaction, the employee who checked out the book to the patron, and the library card of the patron. some employees have library cards. if an employee patron turns in a book late, the fine that they pay is a percentage of their salary. some employees are authors who have library cards—they are allowed to check out as many books as they like.