Did you notice the checklists in the blog post "Should You Virtualize Your Exchange 2007 SP1 Environment?" Did you think those were a pretty handy thing to have? Turns out you're on to something. ...
Updated Jul 01, 2019
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The Exchange 2003 Deployment tools provided such a checklist for installation. I remember Microsoft bragging about how this would reduce installation errors and confusion, and rightfully so. This is hardly new.
The US government has a National Checklist Program for IT Security practices (http://nvd.nist.gov/ncp.cfm).
Checklists have many benefits for the administrator. They instill confidence in processes, they help identify potential errors or 'blind spots' and provide assurance for management. But there is a stigma with checklists, as though they were for people who do not know what they are doing or "people fear checklists because they see them as dehumanizing. Maybe that's because people associate them with the exhaustive lists that let random teenagers successfully run fast-food chains." [1]
While they are helpful, are they authoritative? IT is full of 'exceptions'.
[1] Heath, Dan and Chip, September 11, 2008, http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/123/heroic-checklist.html