How do you automate business processes?

Map the process as it really runs, pick a step that is frequent, rule-based and stable, automate that one thing with the simplest tool that works, and check the results against the manual version. Automating a confusing process only makes the confusion faster.

By Nazar Kashuba · Reviewed

Automation pays when it removes repetitive work without introducing new errors. It disappoints when it is aimed at a process nobody has examined.

Choosing candidates

  • Frequent. Done many times a week.
  • Rule-based. The decisions can be written down.
  • Stable. The process does not change every month.
  • Error-prone or tedious by hand.
  • Digital already. The inputs and outputs exist as data, not as paper and phone calls.

Steps

  1. Map the real process, including the exceptions that people handle without noticing.
  2. Simplify first. Remove steps that exist only from habit.
  3. Choose the tool: an existing automation service, a script, or a custom application, depending on complexity.
  4. Keep a human check at points where mistakes are costly.
  5. Log what happens, so you can see failures and trace problems.
  6. Compare with the manual result for a while before trusting it.

What to avoid

  • Automating without a way to notice when it fails.
  • Building something complex for a task that takes ten minutes a week.
  • Hiding the rules inside a tool nobody understands.

Begin with one small, painful task. A single working automation teaches more than a plan for fifty.

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