Comments on: Communication Trumps Checklists

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:03:53 +0000

In the last month I’ve actually just enabled a large amount of automated checks at my current client, and will be bringing some more online soon. The group management here really like these reports, as it gives them a better handle on the quality of their codebase.

In the case of the 41 point checklist I mentioned, the idea was pushed as a way to “improve quality”. I don’t believe it was an attempt to slow down development, but rather a reaction to the perceived quality problems highlighted by the reports. “We must do something to improve quality. A checklist is something. Therefore be must use a checklist”.

By: Jeffrey Fredrick

Jeffrey Fredrick — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 01:48:01 +0000

PJ and I came to realization that development organizations with low quality reduce risk by slowing the pace of change. Fewer committed changes means fewer new defects! And a 41 point checklist is a great way to get there…

That said, I’m actually in favor of checks, they should just be automated either in the build or by the build system.

By: Bernie

Bernie — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:42:00 +0000

The same problem in another situation is getting people at the pub to wash their hands after going to the toilet. ;-)

The culture of the developers needs to change. The process should be left as simple as possible.

By: Julian Simpson

Julian Simpson — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:41:32 +0000

Hi Joe,

Last year I was told that I was now the ‘gatekeeper of quality’ at the IT shop I was working in. Let’s ignore the fact that you can’t inspect in quality. I wrote a checklist and clung to it. The checklist was for all the things that broke our deployments: sql files with the wrong encodings, with commands for the wrong version of the RDBMS, etc.

It was murder. But it did expose just how many releases weren’t ready for prime time. I got some automated tests going with CI so that developers got the feedback. Some things (like hopelessly inadequate deployment instructions) can’t really be checklisted, though.

It was a useful tool to help screen existing, broken work. As a way of life? Not on your nellie.