Action Checklists and Inspection Checklists

It is unlikely that there is a comprehensive classification of checklists anywhere in the world. Why be optimistic in this area if humanity has only started seriously studying simple lists seven years ago? This dire state of affairs should have already depressed the author of this blog, but no. After all, there is an opportunity to identify one of the classifications on my own and present it to the readers. But first, let’s make a small digression.

One of the principles of formulating a well-defined task sounds as follows [1]:

Every task should start with a verb

Since a checklist is a set of tasks to achieve a predetermined goal, this advice is quite applicable to it. Let’s assume that our goal is to maintain order in email, messengers, and social networks. To achieve this, let’s come up with a daily checklist with well-formulated items:

☐ Check emails in personal email inbox
☐ Process emails in work email inbox
☐ Sort messages in personal messenger
☐ Sort messages in the family messenger
☐ Process messages in work messenger
☐ Sort messages in social network “A”
…
☐ Sort messages in social network “B”

This checklist contains actions and, in the terms of this blog, will be considered an action checklist. If there is a more established term, please let me know.

If you suddenly decided to be inspired by this example to build your digital hygiene, please know that this checklist is not perfect. Its problem is that the tasks described can hide the unpredictable amount of work. There may be 0 emails, or there may be 100. To work with such unpredictability, the checklist items need to be more detailed. This was discussed in one of the previous materials.

Now let’s assume that you decided to reinforce your digital order with the help of an information radiator. You need to display information that shows whether everything has been checked. Let’s say there is a small screen next to the workplace. There is little space on it, but the task of this screen is not to lead you to digital order, but to confirm or deny its existence:

☐ Email inboxes are empty
☐ No unread messages in messengers
☐ No unread messages in social networks

These three items constitute an inspection checklist. They are much closer in form to the goal of “order in email, messengers, and social networks” than to actionable steps. In this example, you inspect yourself, but this is not necessary. More often, inspections are carried out externally. By the way, the Definition of Done, which has already been mentioned in this blog, is perfectly expressed in the form of an inspection checklist.

In the above example, the action checklist is used with the inspection checklist, but this is not always the case. Occasionally there is only one of them, and when only the inspection one is present, its users have more freedom of action.

In the book “The Checklist Manifesto” [2], surgeon Atul Gawande talks about his experience creating a checklist for the World Health Organization. The goal of the checklist he developed was to improve postoperative care and reduce mortality and complications after surgical operations worldwide.

This goal is very ambitious, as is the range of conditions under which surgeries are performed worldwide. Unifying the circumstances under which surgeries are made worldwide doesn’t look real. The action checklist, which in the book is called “READ-DO”, no longer fits because the actions in it are too specific by definition. When some action becomes too specific, there is a high chance of not fitting into the context of its execution. Instead, the inspection checklist, which in the book is called “DO-CONFIRM”, is suitable. Here is what is written about it:

Back in Boston, I set my research team to work making our fledgling surgery checklist more usable. We tried to follow the lessons from aviation. We made it clearer. We made it speedier. We adopted mainly a DO-CONFIRM rather than a READ-DO format, to give people greater flexibility in performing their tasks while nonetheless having them stop at key points to confirm that critical steps have not been overlooked. The checklist emerged vastly improved.

It turns out that although action checklists and inspection checklists are very similar to each other, differences in their wording also hide other fundamental differences.

Action checklists are close to operational definitions and can be used to achieve precise results in predictable circumstances.

Inspection checklists, as their name implies, can be used to check the results of work. But they can also serve to give performers more freedom in unpredictable circumstances.

List of References:
[1] “Three simple rules for writing great tasks for your to-do list” from the “Amazing Marvin” blog
[2] Atul Gawande “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right”, ISBN 978-0312430009