Consider checklists for your tech projects

If your project is uplifting a process to improve the quality level of business as usual (BAU) outcomes, then it is worth considering a checklist as part of your deliverables. That is, "We are giving you this suite of new tools and process documentation, and this checklist is for the process itself, and this other checklist is for if something goes wrong." If the process you are handing over is automated then you don't need the first checklist, but you will need the second.

If your project is not delivering a new or uplifted process to BAU but is simply handing over some deliverable, like a working piece of software or a dataset that is now updated and corrected, then you likely still have a role for checklists within your project. This is because many projects involve some repeating steps.

For example, suppose you need to review a series of email templates to ensure compliance with a list of requirements. Then the same review steps should be followed for each email template to ensure you are following a consistent process, and the outcome is the required quality level for each email template.

Suppose you are creating models for a set of scenarios. Then testing, documentation, revierw, review evidence, signoff and signoff evidence are required for each model. In any project, many team members have several projects to juggle and often also regular day-to-day work to do. It is easy to accidentally miss a step no matter how well each team member knows the process. A checklist covering these steps provides evidence and confidence that a consisten process has been followed.

A checklist is not intended to take the thinking out of your team's work. People in the tech and data space - like in any profession - are highly skilled and often talented people. Yet we all make mistakes or miss obvious steps from time-to-time. A checklist ensure the basic essentials are covered each time around a process so that the individual can put their focus onto the hard parts which really need their nouse, and the elements which are different in any given instance which, therfeore, cannot be captured in a checklist.

Checklists free up your team members to think, which is the opposite of taking thinking out their jobs.

To be useful, a checklist needs to be enforced. On this point, I recommend this article 'The Checklist' by Gawande The New Yorker (2007) which explains that even renowned physicians can make mistakes and every other member of their team is empowered to call them out on a missed checklist item. Missing a checklist item in a medical context clearly can have serious repercussions. But even if your profession is not about saving lives, mistakes still are costly, and can be extremely costly.

A checklist is a simple free-of-charge way to ensure your team is following best practice. It needs to include a review or enforcement process, so that the checklist remains a useful tool that helps your team deliver quality outcomes.

Check out my short video on this topic.