Notebook Delivery Readiness Checklist

🎯 Purpose¶

Use this checklist to prepare any notebook for portfolio, stakeholder, or production use. It ensures clarity, modularity, and polish across your code, outputs, and documentation.

📄 1. Notebook Structure¶

[ ] Imports organized at top (standard + custom functions)
[ ] Data loading section is self-contained (with clear path or notes)
[ ] Notebook uses logical cell structure (Load → EDA → Clean → Model → Results)
[ ] Markdown cells explain purpose of each phase
[ ] Headers or comment blocks separate sections clearly

🧹 2. Code Cleanliness¶

[ ] All hardcoded paths, keys, or credentials removed or abstracted
[ ] Print/log clutter removed or moved to debug appendix
[ ] No commented-out code chunks unless useful context
[ ] No unused variables or dead cells

🧪 3. EDA & Assumptions¶

[ ] Key distributions and value counts are visualized and/or summarized
[ ] Missingness and outliers documented
[ ] Target variable distribution checked and commented on
[ ] Data assumptions matched to model choice (e.g., linearity, normality)

📊 4. Modeling + Evaluation¶

[ ] Model choice justified in markdown or intro cell
[ ] Evaluation metrics printed + visualized (confusion, AUC, RMSE, etc.)
[ ] Model limitations or risks briefly noted
[ ] If classification: threshold logic explained or explored

🧾 5. Documentation & Polish¶

[ ] Title, author, date, and context included at top
[ ] Summary cell near top with goal + outcome
[ ] Final result summarized at end (graph/table/markdown)
[ ] Links to supporting scripts, functions, or guides if needed

✅ Export-Ready Checks¶

[ ] Cells run top-to-bottom with no errors
[ ] Notebook exports cleanly as HTML or PDF (no broken charts or red cells)
[ ] Large outputs hidden or summarized
[ ] Optional: watermark, disclaimer, or contact line added

💡 Tip¶

“Good notebooks answer questions. Great notebooks tell stories — clearly, modularly, and reproducibly.”