# Automation project checklist
XP Solutions · AI & operations consultancy

Use this working checklist to prepare an internal business case or a diagnostic discussion. It is a planning template; delivery scope and commercial terms are agreed separately.

## 1. Define one workflow
- What starts the work, and what marks completion?
- Who owns the outcome? Which teams participate?
- Which systems and records does it touch?
- What work happens outside the documented process?

## 2. Establish the baseline
- Representative weekly volume, handling time, and waiting time.
- Frequency of exceptions, rework, and corrections.
- Cost assumptions and the evidence behind them.
- How the team would actually use recovered capacity.

## 3. Choose the simplest useful intervention
- Can removing a step or clarifying ownership solve the problem?
- Are deterministic rules or integrations sufficient?
- Where is language or document interpretation actually needed?
- Which actions should always remain with a named person?

## 4. Make the business case
- Distinguish capacity value from achievable cash savings.
- Include implementation, software, model usage, review, maintenance, and training.
- Model conservative and expected scenarios.
- Decide what result would justify expansion, revision, or stopping.

## 5. Scope the pilot
- One bounded workflow, its inputs, outputs, and exclusions.
- Representative normal, unusual, missing-data, and failed-system cases.
- Agreed quality, control, reliability, and value acceptance criteria.
- Named decision owner and approval process.

## 6. Agree access and operation
- Authoritative system and record identifiers.
- Read/write permissions, hosting, provider, and retention requirements.
- Human review, exception handling, reconciliation, and recovery.
- Ownership of documentation, training, monitoring, and support.

## 7. Prepare a useful inquiry
Company:
Workflow owner:
Process and tools:
Where work slows down:
Available baseline:
Desired outcome:
Known constraints:

Share a short summary first. Agree confidentiality and access before sending sensitive records.

Discuss your workflow: https://xpsolutions.ai/contact
Sample diagnostic: https://xpsolutions.ai/resources/sample-workflow-audit
Delivery standards: https://xpsolutions.ai/delivery-standards
Email: hello@xpsolutions.org