Checklists allow to run manual tasks in a defined manner. It guides the user of the checklist through a process and helping to not forget a step.
Create a checklist to support team members in executing regular tasks that have not (yet) been automated. Checklists allow to run manual tasks in a defined manner. It guides the user of the checklist through a process and helps to not forget a step.
A checklist is a lightweight process defined by the team. Agile teams usually work closely together and therefore have little need to document how they are doing things. In addition to that, agile teams usually seek to automate repetitive tasks and have their process descriptions in form of scripts.
But if the need arises, that a team decides to document how specific things should be done, the checklist document type is useful. It may also be the first attempt to describe a process before it is scripted. Some processes may not be scriptable, because they mainly describe the interaction between roles in the team. The document may also concentrate on answering the why instead of the how questions. It may be a mere anchor to reference a script from the wiki documentation.
Properties
The document type checklist provides the following properties:
Type
Specify the type of the checklist to organize them.
Use the Checklist Type to define types of checklists.
Sections
Description
Describe the purpose of the checklist. This may include reasons why this has not (yet) been automated.
Context
Provide background information for the reader to understand the task that is accomplished by following the checklist.
Prerequisites
Provide information about what has to be done before to start with the checklist.
Steps
Describe the steps of the checklist. Each step is described in its own subsection. Consider to use the Steps Macro.
Postrequisites
Provide information about what has to or can be done after finishing the steps of this checklist.
Result
Describes the result - if not obvious - the user of the checklist has received.
