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Workflow Automation Assessment
A worksheet for examining one workflow at a time and deciding whether it is worth automating.
- Published2 October 2026
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Use this worksheet to examine one workflow at a time and decide whether it is worth automating. Complete it for the workflow somebody already complains about; volunteered frustration is the most reliable signal available.
01 — Identify the workflow
Record:
- Workflow name
- Owner
- Frequency: daily, weekly, monthly or ad hoc
02 — Map the current process
Write down what actually happens, not what is supposed to happen:
- The trigger — what starts the workflow
- Each step, in order
- The final outcome
Include the workarounds people have invented. Each one marks a place where the official process does not work.
03 — Identify friction
Which of these appear in the workflow?
- Manual data entry
- Repeated communication
- Copying between systems by hand
- Switching between multiple systems
- Approval delays
- Duplicated work
- Missing information
- Effort spent assembling reports
04 — Automation opportunity
Could the workflow benefit from:
- Automated data transfer
- Notifications
- Scheduled actions
- Rules-based processing
- Document processing
- System integration
- AI-assisted processing, where the input varies too much for rules
05 — Human review
Where is human judgement genuinely required? Name the steps, and say what would go wrong if software made that decision instead.
06 — Priority
Rate each as low, medium or high:
- Business impact
- Implementation complexity
- Resulting priority
A workflow that is frequent, rule-based and stable is worth automating before one that is merely annoying.
What is the smallest part of this workflow that could be improved first?
Related reading: a practical guide to workflow automation.
