Mainly, I am working on the pages in Category:Biography articles without listas parameter. My primary source for this value is the value of {{DEFAULTSORT}} or the equivalent value in {{lifetime}} on the article. Other sources are pipes in the category tages and usage in the article. If there is no explicit sort value on the article page, I create one in accordance with the guidelines and various naming conventions.
Back on the talk page, when I put in a value for |listas=, I also put in values for the following, if they are lacking:
|living=
|class=
|a&e-priority=
|filmbio-priority=
|musician-priority=
|military-priority=
|peerage-priority=
|politician-priority=
|royalty-priority=
|s&a-priority=
|sports-priority=
(The |class= and |priority= values are generally taken from other project banners.)
If there are more than two project banners I put the banners into the appropriate shell. (To be honest, I shell banners on pages I merely visit if there are more than two. This probably upsets some people.)