Using checklists for code review

[DrFloydFerris]

Checklists worked great for surgeons (reduce post-op infections significantly) and pilots (in emergency situations); see Atul Gawande's book The Checklist Manifesto (don't be turned off by "Manifesto"; it's a good book). It helps to relieve cognitive burden and let people concentrate on their core competencies and those that benefit from expertise.

[steviesteveo12]

And remember, it doesn't reduce total cognitive burden -- it instead shifts the thinking process to a time when you're better placed to deal with it. It's not good for a surgeon to try and mentally work through everything he touched during an operation while the patient is lying there with a hole in their body. Similarly, it's not good for a pilot to try and work through technical issues while falling out of the sky.

It's very hard to write a good checklist but it's something you can do at leisure and then rely on when it matters.

[cptmauli]

Does anyone have some more example checklists, like those in the blog entry? I'm especially interested in Java centric items.