Is this process actually worth automating?
Run this before you brief anyone, including us. Six checks, and a real 'no' at the end.
- 01
It runs more than once a week.
Something that happens twice a year is cheaper to keep doing by hand, and you will have forgotten how the automation works by the time it next fires.
- 02
The steps are the same every time.
If a person makes a judgement call at step three that changes steps four through nine, you are not automating a process — you are automating a decision. That is a different and more expensive build, and it needs a person reviewing its output for a while.
- 03
The inputs arrive in a form a machine can read.
in the PDF
- 04
Somebody can describe it end to end in one sitting.
in the PDF
- 05
You can live with it being wrong occasionally.
in the PDF
- 06
The process is not about to change.
in the PDF
4 more checks in the PDF
The complete checklist — every check with the reasoning under it, the closing note, and the other 12 documents — comes as one PDF.