Does your org use checklists?

Question

Something I think various orgs I'm part of could benefit from is better management of processes for manual tasks. I wish we could develop a culture of using checklists, but I'm not sure how to make it sticky enough to get people to buy-in and believe-in.Do any of your organizations utilize bonified checklists for things like, "we're about to deploy a release, what precisely do we do?" that are version controlled and in one way or another, actively worked through with initials/signatures/clicks and then stored somewhere for posterity?Or more generally: have you had experiences with this flavour of not-so-heavy process management that you'd feel are worth sharing?

ckluis · Accepted Answer

I'm a big fan of checklists (Checklist Manifesto is a great book).
I think one of the difficult things with checklists is by their default they assume happy path (step 1, then step 2). The reality is step 1 might spawn 13 options. I'd kill for a git-style (or mini-drakon-style) visualization of checklists that are slightly more workflowy.
Something like: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27469952/visualize-branc... for checklists/actions

billybuckwheat · Answer

My team does. We find them useful to ensure that key tasks get done, but we're also constantly refining/tweaking them when we run into situations in which something was missed or a part of the checklist falls flat.As for the entire organisation ... I know that some teams or departments use them and others don't.