AI & automation · Planning worksheet

Automation fallback: keep a usable manual route

Illustrative situation

A team becomes dependent on an automation and no longer knows how to handle work during an outage.

The decision

Document a practical fallback and rehearse the return to normal operation. Include how manually handled items will be reconciled so recovery does not duplicate work.

Rehearse this before accepting the change

Pause a test workflow and process a fictional item manually.

Use fictional examples and an authorised test environment. Record what happened, the evidence you inspected and any issue that still needs a responsible owner.

Choose a useful measure

Measure unresolved or duplicated items after recovery.

Agree the definition and baseline with the team doing the work. Review the result over a comparable period and note other changes that could affect it.

Your planning worksheet

Use these checks to prepare a discussion with your team or supplier. Tick a check when you have recorded the decision or evidence, rather than when a feature has simply been promised.

Decisions to record

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Further reading

These primary sources provide additional context for the project decisions above.

Related decisions

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