Shared Checklist

deski
3 min readAug 4, 2021

The Shared checklist is a tool for workflow visualization. Visualizing your workflow and tasks on a shared checklist helps you better understand your processes and get an overview of your workload. With this new level of transparency, you will quickly identify problematic steps and improve them so that your team can work more efficiently sooner rather than later. In this guide, we will explain what a shared checklist is, discuss the basics and clarify the important details you need to understand, especially if you are a beginner. The shared checklist is an dynamic project management tool designed to visualize work, limit work progress and maximize efficiency. It use cards, columns, and continuous improvement to help technology and service teams commit to the right amount of work and get it done.

It is an excellent visual tool that provides an overview of current work status and simplifies team communication. It is also an important component of the shared checklist that helps to optimize and continuously improve any business process. Visualizing work on a shared checklist will increase productivity and eliminate hassles from your workplace.

How does a Shared Checklist work ?

It work by mapping individual work items to sticky notes placed in rows on a large board. Columns represent the value stream — a series of specific steps that tasks or products have to go through to complete a task from the beginning. Items are written on cards and placed in the respective columns. Different card colors are used for different types of work items, and horizontal lines called swim lines are used to organize teams working on the same board. A limit is set on the capacity of certain columns to ensure the smooth flow of work, and team members draw cards and move them through the columns from left to right as the work progresses.

What are the Elements

1. Visual signals

Even if shared checklist contains only text, that text should be written efficiently enough to quickly convey the meaning of the task or item it describes — in very few words.

2. Columns

A shared checklist should be arranged as an array of vertical columns, each representing a different phase of the workflow, and at that point the team can add cards.

3. Work-in-progress (WIP) limits

The maximum number of cards a team can add to a shared check for any project usually represents work-in-progress limits. WIP limits have many advantages. They help keep a shared checklist from getting too messed up, which can lead to their team losing the benefits of showing their progress at a glance. It helps the team focus on only the most important aspects of the project and prevents them from doing too much work.

4. Commitment point

The team represents only the committed task to be completed, and the appearance of a card in a column marked “In progress”, for example, sends the team a signal signal that the team is committed to completing that task.

5. Delivery point

The delivery point represents the end of the team’s work on a specific task.

Shared checklist are a great way to turn large and complex projects into trackable and discrete activities. The team can review these activities at any time to determine where the project is located. You can use these boards for product roadmaps. However, their real strength comes when the team uses them as project management tools to handle multiple moving parts simultaneously.

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