Release checklists that survive contact with reality
The checklist that people actually follow is the one that fits on a single screen. Everything else gets skimmed, and the one line that mattered gets skimmed with it.
When we review a release process we start by deleting: steps that are historical, steps that duplicate automation, and steps whose failure has never caused an incident.
What remains is usually five to eight items, each tied to a rollback action. If an item cannot fail in a way that matters, it does not belong on the list.