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Exchange Team Blog
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Got Checklists?

The_Exchange_Team's avatar
Feb 02, 2009

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.

Recently, the New York Times reported that researchers found surgical teams made fewer mistakes when they used a checklist: "A checklist for surgical teams that includes steps as basic as having the doctors and nurses introduce themselves can significantly lower the number of deaths and complications."

If checklists work so well for one group of professionals (who, let's face it, have a lot on the line when it comes to not making mistakes), maybe they'd work for others. Do you use checklists to help administer your Exchange org? We supplied some checklists in Exchange 2007, like the Planning Checklist and the Operations Checklists. We're working on docs for the next release of Exchange and got to wondering: What checklists would help you with your job?

 

- Alison Hirsch

Updated Jul 01, 2019
Version 2.0
  • Gotta have Checklists! ...from RTFM  to Rollback plans...zero-defects mentality with Exchange, cuz it's my baby!

    Cheers!
  • Hallelujah to Checklists!

    Checklists allow you to make sure you're consistent. Personally and across a team.

    Checklists make sure you do everything, don't forget anything, and do it all in the right order.

    Checklists should contain reference to KB articles that can add enlightenment to certain points in the process.

    Checklists allow one person to start a job and someone else to finish it.

    Yes, you have to be rigorous how how you use them (you can't check the box until you finish the task), but they dramatically improve efficiency for organizations that use them.
  • Checklists are great inputs to more detailed plans.  How about

    - Migration checklist
    - Integration checklist (OCS, MOSS, AD combined planning considerations - how to maximise teh experience)
    - Security checklist (how to lock down various roles, how to monitor for ongoing compliance, design a roles-based admin model)
  • Exchange backup & recovery checklist for Windows Server 2008 :)
  • I think a Checklist for recovery would be a good idea. Many a time I have seen an Exchange Recovery go so horribly wrong because someone forgot a step or two here and there and screw it up even worse...
  • Interesting! People who know each others names are more safe to slice you open a move your internal organs.
  • Checklists are great, as long as they don't have to many points that are not important for my case.

    IBM for example has checklists for everything - for example, performing a system save on an IBM i is a 60 point checklist. However, in most normal deployments, only 10 or so of these points apply.

    This is very confusing - so you create a new checklist with only the points that apply to your case. Annyong.