These serve as guidelines for doing a step well and for self assessment. Each checklist item can be checked as Done, Not Done, Not Mastered or Not Applicable. Examine this chart and use it wisely. :-)
By mastered we mean you know how to do it really well, and using the item is intuitive and painless. You don't have to be an expert, just very competent. Note there's no "Not Done Well" category. That's because things like this are better treated as boolean, where either the practice is done or not done. If it's not done well it's best to face reality and call it not done, to avoid fooling yourself. There is no such thing as partial high quality. One quickly realizes the best way to improve a step is to master all required skills. This requires much training and self study, and is far more important than the process itself. A process only leverages a group's technical skills. It doesn't replace them.
An item could be checked Not Done because the process is still so young that folks haven't yet had time to do all the items a checklist recommends. This is okay, a normal part of the learning curve.
An item could be checked Not Applicable because for this project it's not needed, or because you're using just a portion of the process.
The checklists available so far are:
It's interesting the Analysis checklist is twice as long as the Modeling one. Perhaps this is a measure of what relative importance should be, as opposed to what is. ;-)