Before launching any automation project, even before opening our editor, we need to define the essential steps for project success. Equally

Before launching any automation project, even before opening our editor, we need to define the essential steps for project success. Equally important is understanding the most common reasons automation projects can fail.

There’s often a large gap between expectations and reality in the field. This gap has driven me to create a practical approach drawn from my field experience.

In an ideal world, the devices we work with are modern, standardized, and compatible across the board, making tools, frameworks, and orchestrators the perfect fit for rapid operational improvements. However, in reality, we often encounter a mix of newer devices and those that reached end-of-support years ago, each with unique configurations that demand a highly precise and nuanced approach.

Formal training can’t fully prepare you for these scenarios, as their specific nature defies standardization in traditional courses. But ignoring these issues is no longer an option: the shortage of qualified personnel means that traditional infrastructure management has become unsustainable. Specific training projects can greatly improve operations in a short time. Here, automation is key in gradually bringing infrastructure back under control.

Key factors for project success

Certain factors contribute significantly to the success of automation projects:

• Understand the scenario: Process automation vs Task Automation
• Engage decision-makers: Operational improvements require involvement from key stakeholders. Without their engagement and support, it’s nearly impossible to achieve lasting improvements.
• Standardize processes and define use cases: Automation requires a clear process. We must be able to define and standardize each step we plan to automate.
• Modeling: Part of the design phase, this step is crucial and often underappreciated. It’s essential to map out and visualize each process, as this groundwork shapes the entire project.
• Configuration approach: Choosing between a golden configuration or a differential approach impacts the project deeply, and it’s often a long-term commitment.
• Inventory: the inventory isn’t just a device list, it’s a structured set of input data for specific configurations.
• Maintain an up-to-date lab: Each automation project should include a test environment for continual development and validation.
• Prepare for large-scale outages: Automation at scale means errors, if not managed, can have significant repercussions. Accounting for potential issues is crucial.
• Document thoroughly: Proper documentation ensures that automated processes remain maintainable.
• Write reusable code: Writing reusable code helps to broaden the project scope over time.
• Standardize the development environment: Standardized, certified environments ensure a reliable automation platform.

These factors are listed by importance and align with their typical order of occurrence in a project.

Single task automation

I call single task automation an activity that arises from a purely personal need, aimed at automating a series of activities (tasks) of the individual themselves. In most cases, automation in a company starts like this: there are repetitive tasks, and if the person performing them is particularly creative, they will write a small software to automate those tasks. Let’s look at its characteristics:

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