Good Practice - ETVX

Want to keep your team focused?  Use checklists - but not any old checklist - try using ETVX - Entry-Task-Verification-eXit

1.       Entry:  What criteria must be met before a process can start

2.       Tasks:  Lists of tasks to be performed for this process

3.       Verification:  The means by which the team can tell that the process was completed properly

4.       Exit:  A list of outputs from the process

Its simple.  Easy to consume.  Something quick to put onto a whiteboard in your team room.   Of course you can get fancy if you  want.  For giggles I implemented work items in Team System to help me track this, but it was a pain for reporting since none of the default VSTS reports supported this method nicely. 

If you are using VSTS, this may not replace your normal work item tracking system.  It can be used to augment how you communicate to your team by providing a higher level reminder of what everyone should be doing in a particular block of time/phase/or process on a project.

History: Rajashima introduced this method to Jeff De Luca who was a founding father of Feature Driven Development.