I guess I've always thought of my integration tests as the higher-level checklist. I've only done web development, so that works. I could see how if you're writing software for something as important as OpenSSL then you might need an extra set of checks, but there's still room for human error. Seems like there should be someway to automate everything required to deploy software.

But I realize this is an idealistic approach. The reality is that a good test suite with higher-level checklists is probably more practical.