“Checklist the Docs” at Write the Docs Europe 2016

Presented on September 20, 2016 at Write the Docs North America 2016

Daniel Beck - Checklist the Docs by Kay Smoljak/Write the Docs licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I gave a talk on using checklists in your documentation workflow at the Write the Docs Europe held in Prague, Czech Republic in September 2016. If you attended the talk, I hope you enjoyed it!

Here are some of the things I mentioned in my talk:

• James Reason, Human error: models and management and Human Error
• Swiss cheese model
• Sophie Leroy, Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks
• Git hooks

Want a reading list? I’ve got you covered.

If you’re desperate to revisit my slides, then you can download a PDF.

Reception

I confess I am a #checklist geek. Loving @ddbeck's talk on checklists. https://t.co/RaUrxAjWex #WriteTheDocs #techcomm

— Karen Mardahl (@kmdk) September 20, 2016

Thank you for your awesome talk on the relevance of checklists at #writethedocs @ddbeck @writethedocs pic.twitter.com/0fcWCADVTl

— Jan Christian Dammann (@iDocIt) September 20, 2016

Writing a good checklist sounds a lot like writing a good tutorial. Great talk by @ddbeck #writethedocs

— Eric Holscher (@ericholscher) September 20, 2016

Amazing that @ddbeck had a pre-talk checklist for his talk on checklists. #writethedocs pic.twitter.com/8PY1Fw2Zuw

— Eric Holscher (@ericholscher) September 20, 2016

Photo credits

• Boeing Model 299 cockpit, United States Air Force, public domain
• First flight, 120 feet in 12 seconds, 10:35 a.m.; Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville Wright and John T. Daniels, public domain
• Keystone B-5A, United States Air Force, public domain
• Four Engine Bomber, United States Air Force, public domain
• Boeing XB-17, United States Air Force, public domain
• Swiss cheese model of accident causation, Davidmack, CC-BY-SA 3.0
• Cowling and control rods are added to motors for North American B-25 bombers as they move down the assembly line, North American, Inc., Inglewood, Calif., Office of War Information, public domain
• Jet Roars Over Bicycle Path Near Washington’s Nation Airport. Noise-decibel Level From Aircraft At This Altitude Can Cause Permanent Ear Damage, Environmental Protection Agency, public domain
• The Cockpit Voice Recorder, National Transportation Safety Board, public domain

• Apollo 12 Lunar Surface Procedures Lunar Module Pilot Cuff Checklist, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, public domain

  Note: The Apollo 12 checklists contain some not-so code-of-conduct friendly nude photographs of women because apparently a bunch of 1950s and ’60s test pilots were sexist sleaze balls. Who would’ve guessed?

• The General Problem, xkcd, CC BY-NC 2.5