Free process-planning template
Automation Assessment Template
Turn “we waste hours on this” into a process everyone can understand.
Use this practical structure to understand a repetitive task, its awkward exceptions and the result your team needs before committing to an automation build.
- Four clear planning sections
- Human exceptions included
- Print, save or copy
Make it your own: use the prompts that suit the job and remove anything you do not need. It is a helpful handover structure, not a promise that every item is included in every package.
The routine as it works today
Describe the work in everyday language before thinking about software or solutions.
- What starts the task and who is involved
- How often it happens and roughly how long it takes
- Where information comes from
- What the team needs at the end
The rules—and the awkward cases
Capture what normally happens, then add the exceptions that still need human attention.
- The usual steps and decisions
- Cases that need a person to choose
- Real examples of normal and unusual work
- Missing, inconsistent or unreliable information
A sensible automation route
Recommend the smallest useful change and make the dependencies visible before building.
- The proposed future workflow
- What is feasible and what it depends on
- Access, licences and ongoing third-party costs
- Risks, controls and the recommended first phase
How success will be checked
Agree what the team will test and how it will know the change has genuinely helped.
- A clear successful result and test examples
- Operating notes and who owns the process
- Useful measures for a later outcome review