A guide about finishing should end with an observable action: the version is frozen, critical risks are checked, the result is delivered, and remaining ideas have a separate destination.
Define done before the final pass
RECIPIENT
Who will use the result:
REQUIRED
Criteria that must be met:
CRITICAL RISK
The error that cannot be accepted:
FORMAT AND DELIVERY
How, where, and when it is delivered:
NOT IN THIS VERSION
Improvements intentionally excluded:Done is not a feeling of certainty. Doubt can remain after a careful review.
Match review depth to risk
| Output | Review |
|---|---|
| reversible internal draft | structure, clarity, access |
| public material | facts, links, language, rendering |
| financial, legal, or safety-related decision | specialist review and organizational policy |
Do not use the same depth for a colleague’s note and a high-risk document. Even an enhanced review still needs an owner, criterion, and endpoint.
Use a closure ritual
- Check mandatory criteria.
- Review critical risks.
- Freeze the version number or date.
- Record known noncritical limitations.
- Perform the final action: export, send, publish.
- Save confirmation.
- Close work tabs and task status.
The ritual separates actual delivery from “I think I am finished.”
Route remaining ideas
Every new idea receives one response:
- fix now when a mandatory criterion is broken;
- move to the next version when value is real but the delivery is ready;
- ask the scope owner when the change expands the request;
- remove it when it does not change the result.
Do not create a next-version list automatically. One-time work may be complete permanently.
Choose the neighboring protocol
- No stopping criterion: define good-enough criteria.
- The work is ready but rereading continues: stop endless revisions.
- Review keeps expanding: use a timebox.
- Delivery itself feels threatening: work through fear of criticism.
In Flammy, criteria and the final delivery can be separate tasks, followed by closing the quest. XP marks completion under your rule; it does not certify professional correctness.