# The Questions a Good Work Order Answers

*A one-page checklist from My Lab Notes, emmanuelquintero.com*

Answer these before you hand work to an AI. Then hand the same answers, plus the result, to a different AI to check.

## Before the work starts

- [ ] **What is the goal, in one sentence?** If it takes a paragraph, the job is two jobs.
- [ ] **What does done look like?** Something anyone could check: a file exists, a page loads, a number matches.
- [ ] **What is out of bounds?** What it must not touch, change, delete, send or spend.
- [ ] **Where does it start from?** The files, notes or past decisions it should read first.
- [ ] **What should it do if it gets stuck?** Stop and ask, or note the gap and keep going.
- [ ] **Which AI is doing the building?** Write it down, so the checker can be a different one.

## Before you call it done

- [ ] **Did a different AI check the result against the goal and the definition of done?**
- [ ] **Did anyone open the actual output,** or only read the message that said it worked?
- [ ] **Is anything overstated?** "Never," "always" and "all" deserve a second look.
- [ ] **Did anything partial get reported as complete?** Half a backup is not a backup.
- [ ] **Who makes the final call?** (Hint: you.)

## After it ships

- [ ] **What went wrong, and what caught it?** Write it down in one line.
- [ ] **What question would have caught it sooner?** Add it to this list.

## Want it built in?

I set up this kind of check for businesses using AI: the work orders, the second look, and the habit of checking the output. If you'd rather not build it yourself, reach me at emmanuelquintero.com.