7 automation mistakes that waste money

Automation done well pays for itself many times over. Done badly, it burns money and trust. Here are the seven mistakes I see most often.

The list

1. Automating the wrong thing - starting with a rare task instead of a high-volume one. Fix: start where the hours are.
2. Not mapping first - automating a broken process. Fix: map it, then build.
3. No error handling - automations that fail silently. Fix: build them to fail loudly and safely.
4. No monitoring - nobody knows when something breaks. Fix: alerts from day one.
5. Over-automating - removing humans from decisions that need them. Fix: keep a human in the loop where it matters.
6. Ripping and replacing - throwing out working tools. Fix: build around what you have.
7. No handover - a black box only the builder understands. Fix: documentation and ownership.

Avoiding these is most of what makes an automation project succeed.

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