Workflows & automation
Should you fix a process before automating it?
Automation is valuable when the normal case is clear. It is costly when the rules still live in someone's head.
Published 25 September 2026
Watch one ordinary case and one awkward one
Follow each from the first request to the final record. Mark every copy, wait, judgment and correction. If the official process omits an email thread that resolves half the cases, that thread is part of the process you are about to automate.
Remove steps with no purpose and agree definitions shared by the teams involved. Otherwise automation makes the disagreement faster and harder to see.
Keep the boundary of judgement visible
Repeated checks, reminders and transfers can often be automated. An ambiguous exception may need a person who has the facts and authority to decide. Design that escalation path before switching the routine path on.
A good system lets someone see what it did, correct a mistake and change a rule safely. If the only way to recover is to call the developer, the process is not yet owned.
Suppose most approval requests include the required document, but some arrive incomplete just before a deadline.
Automate the completeness check and routine routing. Keep the decision to proceed without the document with an authorised person, and record why they made it.