Automation Readiness Checklist
Automation multiplies whatever it is pointed at. These nineteen questions, grouped into five checks, tell you whether you are about to multiply value or multiply a mess.
1. Is the process understood?
If you cannot describe the real path cases take, you are automating a guess.
- Can you name the case, the activities, and the end state?
- Do you have at least one month of event history?
- Do you know the top three variants and what share of volume they carry?
- Do you know the current cycle time and its spread, not just the average?
2. Is it stable enough to automate?
Automating a process that changes monthly buys you a monthly rebuild.
- Has the flow been unchanged for at least one quarter?
- Are the input formats consistent, or does every source arrive differently?
- Is volume predictable enough to size the automation?
- Are exceptions under roughly twenty per cent of cases?
3. Is the control story clear?
An automated process still needs governance — usually more of it, applied faster.
- Which governance rules apply, and are they written as measurable thresholds?
- Who approves what, and does segregation of duties survive automation?
- What evidence must each run produce?
- Who is notified on failure, and inside what window?
4. Are the people ready?
Automation changes jobs. Being explicit about that early is the difference between adoption and quiet sabotage.
- Is there a named process owner with authority to change the flow?
- Do the people doing the work know what changes for them?
- Who supports the automation when it breaks at 7am?
- Has the freed capacity been agreed, rather than assumed?
5. Can you prove the benefit?
If you cannot measure before, you cannot claim after.
- Have you captured the baseline: cycle time, cost per case, rework rate?
- What is the target, and by when?
- How will you detect drift after go-live?
More from the library
Guide
The Governance-by-Design Primer
A 20-page introduction to embedding controls at the design stage.
Framework
Process Maturity Scorecard
Score any process across five dimensions with a consistent method.
Webinar
AI in Governance: What Actually Works
A 45-minute recorded session with practical examples and pitfalls.
Want this applied to your own processes?
Book a 30-minute session and we'll walk your data through the same method.