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The problem is not lost context. The problem is that adding an item to a checklist protects you from a category of outcomes. If you have a checklist item to make sure a release is signed, you will never push an unsigned release.

Removing an item from a checklist is done in response to a change in inputs. Sure, you may have automated release signing - but unless you are 100% confident that you are aware, and have mitigated 100% of the ways in which this can fail, you cannot, and should not remove the 'check that the release is signed' step.

Lost context has nothing to do with this. Unless you are an omniscient god, you probably cannot reason, with 100% certainty, that you have mitigated every possible input that produced a bad output.

So, check your outputs.




So it could be an automated test to check if the release is signed as well instead of a checklist item.

Having long checklists for comparatively simple tasks really hurts productivity, plus they're often used as an excuse to put automation in place, because 'the process is already defined' and 'people are already used to it'.

When designing a process, it is of utmost importance to keep checklist lengths minimal.




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