Automation Phases
Automation is a journey, not a destination. Using a phased approach like this can help to delineate stages within the journey. If published internally, such a phase set can also help clients to understand the state of systems. The phases can be enhanced by adopting best practices or standards to go along with each phase.
Phase 1: Ad-Hoc
- The process or action is done manually by an engineer
- The information is often siloed away in the mind of an engineer or other documentation anti-patterns (e.g.: videos, slide decks)
Phase 2: Following Documentation
- The process or action is documented
- An engineer is following documentation and executing the steps manually
Documentation Quality Caveat
The quality of the documentation is not part of these phases.
Phase 3: Running a Script
- The process or action has been built into a script
- An engineer is following documentation
- The engineer is running the script manually
Phase 4: Script is Wrapped in Manual Trigger
- The process or action has been wrapped around a workflow dispatch trigger
- An engineer is following documentation
- The engineer manually triggers the workflow
Phase 5: Fully Automated
- The process or action is triggered automatically based on events