Identify work that happens often enough, follows a similar pattern, and produces a predictable result. Compare it with one-off, creative, or ambiguous work that is harder to turn into a workflow.

Turn a real work activity into a reusable step sequence by naming its trigger, starting point, ending point, inputs, actions, and outputs. Practice checking that each step has enough information to produce the next result.

Apply the previous explanations in a guided problem.

Decide who is responsible for each step and what must be passed to the next person, team, or system. Reason through how unclear handoffs create delays, rework, and automation failures.

Separate the normal path from variations, missing information, exceptions, and escalation moments. Decide which differences can be handled with simple rules and which ones need human attention.

Apply the previous explanations in a guided problem.

Check your understanding with a short quiz.

Judge whether a workflow is a good automation candidate by weighing volume, frequency, rule clarity, data quality, risk, effort, and expected value. Recognize cases where automation would save time and cases where it would add fragility.

Decide which parts of a workflow should stay with people because they require judgment, empathy, accountability, negotiation, or context. Place automation in supporting roles such as routing, reminding, drafting, checking, or preparing information.

Apply the previous explanations in a guided problem.

Check your understanding with a short quiz.

Review this chapter with practice based on your mistakes.