Checklists

You can add checklist items to any step in Runway to cover any unique parts of your team's release process. Checklist items can be created to apply to a single release, or across all releases, or even at the organization level to apply to multiple apps' releases.

A step won't be marked as complete (green) in Runway until all checklist items have been completed -- in addition to the normal criteria that would mark a step as completed.

When a checklist item is marked as completed, Runway will keep track of when the status changed, and who updated it.

For example, you might need to send an email to the VP of Product every time a new release gets kicked off.

Creating a checklist item called "Email Helen" on the Kickoff step will document this as a part of your release process, and gives your team a way to indicate that the task has been completed for each release.

Managing checklist items

Checklist items can be managed in three places in Runway:

• At the step level by navigating to a specific release > selecting a step > selecting the Checklist tab

  • When creating a checklist item at the step level, you have the additional option to include a checklist item for the current release only.

• At the app level by navigating to Settings > Checklists

• At the org level by navigating to Organization settings > Checklist Items

  • Checklist items created at the org level will populate down to any apps in the org that you specify, and any changes made at the org level will be reflected across all apps selected.

'Ping pending' actions

When items belonging to a checklist are still pending, you can use the "Ping" action behind the ... icon for an individual item to send a Slack or Teams message to the checklist item owner, or the “Ping all pending” button in the upper-right corner above the checklist to send messages to all owners of pending items.

Checklist item components

Create checklist item dialog

Release step

Specify which step of the release process this checklist item applies to.

Checklist tasks can be particularly helpful for gating automations. For instance, you could set a checklist item as part of the Beta Testing step, which Runway requires to be complete (green) before automatically submitting an update for review to the app store.

Release types

Specify which types of releases (major, minor, point, hotfix) require this checklist item.

(Org level only) Choosing apps that this checklist item will apply to

When managing checklist items from Organization settings, you can choose which apps the item applies to. Apps can be selected individually by name or grouped by platform type.

Title

A name for this task. This appears on the checklist itself, as well as notifications related to updates on this item.

(From step level only) Include checklist item for current release only

When creating a checklist item from the Checklist tab on a particular release, you'll see an additional option to have the checklist item apply only to that release.

Set a target completion time

When creating or editing a checklist item, you can set a target completion date that is relative to the release's kickoff, submission, or release.

Add a target completion time

View the status of items with target completion times

Send a reminder if incomplete

Keep this option selected if you want your team to be notified if the target completion date passes and the item is still marked as incomplete. Runway will post in Slack or Teams when the target completion date passes, as well as the owner of the incomplete task.

Send a completion notification

Keep this option selected if you want your team to be notified about updates to this item during a release cycle. Runway will post in Slack or Teams when a task is completed, or was formerly completed but reverted, as well as who performed the change and when.

Additional information

Optional - You can add information here that can easily be surfaced in Runway for team members working on this task. These notes serve as documentation available on every release cycle. Markdown is supported, and there's a built-in viewer.

For example, if a specific command needs to be run at a certain point in your release cycle, you could paste a code snippet here for engineers who need to complete this task.

Or if a PM needs to share an update with leadership, you could add a handy email template for sending a message to stakeholders.

Owners

Checklist items can optionally specify user groups or individuals as owners. Designate an owner if a checklist item is intended to be completed by a specific team member (or by a team member from a specific group). Owners — individuals, or any members of the specified group(s) — will be able to update the item's status.

In addition to any specified owners / owner groups, anyone with a default or custom role that has the 'Complete/uncomplete checklist items' permission will be able to update the status on any checklist item.