Write the process down first
Before building anything, describe the process in one paragraph: what starts it, who is involved, what must happen, and how you know it's finished. If that paragraph is hard to write, the process isn't ready to automate.
- 01Trigger event
- 02Decision points and who owns them
- 03Definition of done
Choose the right trigger
Triggers should be observable changes to a record: a stage change, a new request, an approval decision, or a date arriving. Avoid triggering on fields people edit casually, or the workflow will fire at unexpected moments.
- 01Record created or updated
- 02Status or stage change
- 03Date reached (due, renewal, review)
- 04Form or portal submission
Add conditions to stay precise
Conditions are what stop a helpful rule becoming spam. Scope by value, type, location or owner so the workflow only runs on the cases it was designed for.
- 01Only for deals above a value
- 02Only for a specific request type
- 03Only during business hours or a date range
Design actions that create accountability
The best actions create a named owner and a due date. Notifications alone tend to be ignored; a task with a deadline is a commitment the system can follow up on.
- 01Create tasks with owners and relative due dates
- 02Route an approval when a threshold is crossed
- 03Update fields so reporting stays accurate
- 04Notify the customer through their portal
Test in draft, then enable
Run new workflows in draft against real records and read the run log before switching them on. Check the edge cases deliberately: missing owners, out-of-hours triggers, and records that change twice in a minute.
- 01Test the happy path and two edge cases
- 02Confirm no duplicate tasks are created
- 03Enable for one team before the whole workspace
Review and retire rules
Workflows accumulate. Review them quarterly, retire the ones nobody relies on, and keep an owner listed for each so there is always someone who understands why it exists.
- 01Quarterly review of every active rule
- 02One named owner per workflow
- 03Archive rather than delete, so history is preserved