A workflow can execute perfectly and still make the business worse.

The approval routes correctly. The record updates. The notification fires. The case closes. The automation reports success.

But the customer waits longer. Employees create side channels. Important exceptions disappear. Human judgment is removed at the wrong moment. A bad decision simply moves faster.

The problem is not always broken automation. Often, it is a broken process that was automated before anyone examined its assumptions, ownership, failure paths, or real-world consequences.

This session introduces a practical method for determining whether a process is ready to automate. Attendees will learn how to identify hidden judgment, map exception paths, preserve accountability, design escalation and recovery, and measure whether automation improves the outcome rather than merely accelerating completion.

Automation should not make a bad process faster, quieter, and harder to challenge.

Products

Power Platform
Customer Engagement
Finance & Operations / SCM
Business Central

Level

Intermediate

Small Print

Session Type: Power Platform / Workflow Automation / Business Process Design / Digital Transformation

Preferred Length: 45 minutes

Target Audience: Power Platform practitioners, business analysts, developers, functional consultants, solution architects, product owners, operations leaders, CRM and ERP teams, process-improvement professionals, and managers responsible for automation strategy.

Attendee Takeaways:

Determine whether a process should be redesigned before automation
Identify where human judgment, context, and accountability are required
Map exceptions, escalation paths, rollback, and recovery before launch
Separate workflow execution from business success
Detect when automation is moving risk downstream rather than removing work

Original Framework: The Automation Readiness Review

The session evaluates a process across six dimensions:

Outcome: What result is the process supposed to create?
Judgment: Where does interpretation or discretion still matter?
Exceptions: What happens when reality does not match the happy path?
Ownership: Who is responsible for the automated outcome?
Reversibility: Can the action be corrected, rolled back, or escalated?
Evidence: How will the organization know the process actually improved?

Examples may include:

Approval workflows that automate delay instead of reducing it
Service automations that close cases without resolving customer problems
CRM updates that improve data completeness while degrading data quality
Financial workflows that eliminate review at high-risk moments
AI-assisted processes that create hidden verification and exception-handling work
Automations that succeed technically while employees maintain parallel manual systems

Commercial Content: None. This is a vendor-neutral educational session.

First Public Delivery: New for 2026