Problem Statement
Engineering teams struggle to evaluate system reliability objectively. Reviews are often treated as aesthetic styling debates rather than functional audits. This checklist establishes an actionable scorecard framework.
When to Use
Use this checklist during planning phases, prior to launching new products, or when assessing inherited legacy systems to identify structural risks before they impact users.
Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Codebase Analysis
- Review directory structures for clean boundaries.
- Identify duplication surfaces and tight component coupling.
- Check compliance with static analysis rules.
Step 2: Database Schema Health
- Validate primary and foreign key indexes.
- Audit table locks, write amplification metrics, and query speeds.
- Check normalization bounds and read/write splitting strategies.
Step 3: Infrastructure and DevOps
- Verify environment configurations are fully version-controlled.
- Check CI/CD testing pipelines and staging parity bounds.
- Validate SSL, CORS policies, and CDN caching layers.
Checklist Items
- Codebase conforms to standard framework directory layouts.
- No tight coupling exists between controller classes and data access queries.
- Slow query logs are configured and reviewed monthly.
- Database index coverage covers all high-traffic search fields.
- CI/CD pipeline blocks code coverage regressions automatically.
- API endpoints enforce rate-limiting rules at the edge server level.