3 Key Principles for Every Automation

Recall the 3 principles for effective automations + Scope an automation by planning with the end state in mind and involving your stakeholders

Module Overview

💡 The following principles will help you scope and build effective automations, no matter your goal or starting point. Use the Workflow Design Worksheet to guide you through the scoping process.

Video (4:31 Minutes)

3 Key Principles to Automation

1. Aharon's Law: You can't document a process that doesn't exist.

Start with documenting the process and make sure you involve colleagues to gather key information about the process, identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies, and ensure alignment on the goals/objectives.

2. The best automations are forgettable...so figure out how you'll measure the value of an automation from the start!

This may be time saved or a different metric (or set of metrics), and goes back to the benefits of automation.

3. Start with small, simple, frequent tasks.

...or, start with just a few steps. Test, refine, and build from there.

Action Items

• Use the Workflow Design Worksheet to support scoping your first automation. Keep it simple -- selecting a well-defined, automatable task that's part of a larger process is a great starting point.

• Make sure to collaborate with stakeholders to ensure your task/process is well-documented, and consider creating a diagram/flowchart to help you translate these starting points into the visual interface of a Rewst workflow.

Navigation

Go to the previous module: Introduction to automation and scoping

Go to the next module:

Automating a Business Process