I would argue it's doing what's right for the situation but with a few top level goals that should constantly be in view. - Simplicity: you should be creating

I would argue it's doing what's right for the situation but with a few top level goals that should constantly be in view. - Simplicity: you should be creating simple designs / solutions - Feedback: you should be getting continuous feedback as to whether what you're doing is working and self-correcting - Courage/Communication/Respect: you should be fostering a collaborative environment where people feel free to tell the truth and feel they're respected as people and professionals The practices (pairing, TDD, etc.) are just a way of getting to those goals. You can follow any other disciplines you want, but if the end result doesn't look like what I just described (or if it isn't the explicit goal of your activities) then I don't think you're doing XP.