Checklist
A checklist is a type of informational job aid used to reduce failure by compensating for potential limits of human memory and attention. It helps to ensure consistency and completeness in carrying out a task. A basic example is the "to do list." A more advanced checklist would be a schedule, which lays out tasks to be done according to time of day or other factors.
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[edit] Applications
- pre-flight checklists aid in aviation safety to ensure that critical items are not forgotten
- use in medical practice to ensure that clinical practice guidelines are followed. An example is the Surgical Safety Checklist developed for the World Health Organization by Dr. Atul Gawande.
- used in quality assurance of software engineering, to check process compliance, code standardization and error prevention, and others.
- often used in industry in operations procedures.
- used in civil litigation to deal with the complexity of discovery and motions practice. An example is the open-source litigation checklist.
- can aid in mitigating claims of negligence in public liability claims by providing evidence of a risk management system being in place.
- an ornithological checklist, a list of birds with standardized names that helps ornithologists communicate with the public without the use of scientific names in Latin.
- a popular tool for tracking sports card collections. Randomly inserted in packs, checklist cards provide information on the contents of sports card set.
[edit] Format
Checklists are often presented as lists with small checkboxes down the left hand side of the page. A small tick or checkmark is drawn in the box after the item has been completed.
Other formats are also sometime used. Aviation checklists generally consist of a system and an action divided by a dashed line, and lack a checkbox as they are often read aloud and are usually intended to be reused.
[edit] External links
| Look up checklist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Checklist templates
- The Checklist by Atul Gawande, from The New Yorker
- How the Pilot's Checklist Came About
[edit] Further reading
- The Checklist Manifesto - How To Get Things Right by Atul Gawande, 2009, Henry Holt and Company, ISBN 978-0-8050-9147-8
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