Who maintains this — and what do you do when (not if) checklists get outdated and start causing harm?

This is an unpleasant question, because the correct answer is not romantic: checklists require care.

And yes — without care a checklist can become worse than no checklist. It creates false confidence.

How a checklist starts causing harm

Usually it looks like this:

• the number of items keeps growing;
• phrasing turns into “verified/ready”;
• reality changes, but the text stays;
• people either skim, or bypass.

At some point the ticks remain, but the verification disappears.

What works (without turning this into a project)

1) An owner

You need a role/person responsible for freshness. Not everyone.

2) Review triggers

Not someday, but specifically:

• after a miss or an incident;
• after a noticeable process/tool change;
• once a quarter if the process is rare but critical.

3) A change rule

So it doesn’t turn into endless work:

• change 1–3 items based on reality;
• delete the excess;
• keep the baseline short.

Honest limits

If there can’t be an owner, don’t make the checklist a mandatory standard.

Better a macro/template and minimal discipline than a ritual wall of text that calms you and then fails you.