[scrapheap]

Where possible automate them!

From my point of view the power of automation for recurring tasks is less to do with time saved, and more to do with making sure that it will get done and be done the same way every time.

Bonus tip: log the outputs of automated tasks when they run, but only send out notifications of errors - that way you don't train staff to ignore the notifications from the task just because they see it every time the job runs, and instead seeing a notification from it is rare, so they know they need to investigate.

[batels]

Strongly agree. Automation is the ideal outcome whenever possible.

What I keep running into is the gray area between "can’t be automated yet" and "shouldn’t be automated". Things like reviews, checks, approvals, or manual verifications.

The notification fatigue point is especially real. If everything notifies, nothing gets attention.

Do you usually treat non-automatable tasks as exceptions, or do you still rely on routines / trust for those?

[scrapheap]

As a team we use Kanban, so everything being worked on gets a ticket and we walk the Kanban board every morning. So if a task is waiting for someone to review it, then it gets highlighted to the whole team each morning. If a task is blocked until something else happens then it gets highlighted to the whole team.

Walking the board feels a bit awkward and slow at first, but after a few weeks you find that it takes very little time. It certainly works well for us.

[batels]

That makes sense.

I’ve mostly been thinking about lower visibility recurring tasks that don’t always make it onto a board.