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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