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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.

Automation Phases

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