Hi Atul,
For Point 1: Yes, and in my case I made 2 rule policies. One is for Auto Checklist Determination and one is for Auto step partner determination. When I select the Category in the schema, it triggers the Checklist Determination rule and the corresponding Checklist is determined. Based on the checklist ID, the Step Partners are determined for all the checklist steps.
So: Category selected -> Checklist auto selected -> all partners selected.
For Point 2: No, I don't think so. The workflow has to be activated by using the action profile to assign the standard workflow or a copy of it. If you leave aside that configuration and only use Rule policies to trigger the determination of Checklists and Checklist Steps, it should work fine. In my case I used workflows though, since it was a business requirement.
Regards,
Saad