Map it before you automate it.

AUTOMATION PLANNING WORKSHEET

1 / THE JOB
What repeated task am I doing? Who owns it? How often does it happen? What does success look like?

2 / THE TRIGGER
What event starts this workflow? Could the same event arrive twice?

3 / THE INPUT
Which fields are required? Is any data personal or confidential? What happens if a field is missing?

4 / THE STEPS
Write each action in order. Keep the first version small. Where is human approval needed?

5 / THE OUTPUT
Where does the result go? Who can read or change it?

6 / WHEN IT FAILS
What is safe to retry? How will you prevent duplicate emails, charges, or records? Who is notified? How do you pause it?

7 / THE TEST
Try one normal input, one missing input, one duplicate, and one tool failure. Review results manually before connecting real customer data.