Workflow ownership
Give the workflow an owner.
Connect the task, the information and the person responsible.
A useful AI workflow has a defined job.
Search, drafting, review and task execution call for different permissions and different forms of human involvement.
Name the work
Describe the task in operational terms: retrieve a maintenance record, assemble supporting documentation, or help review requirements. Establish the inputs, and the result a person needs to continue their work.
Follow the access path
Identify the sources the workflow can use and the enterprise systems it may reach. Internal knowledge, integrations and permissions need to agree with the role of the person using the application.
Set the review point
Define where a person checks the output and which actions require approval. Drafting a document and executing an approved task need different boundaries, and the design should make those boundaries visible to the team.
Keep responsibility explicit
Name the workflow owner and the people responsible for updates, access and support. When the work changes, those people need a way to review the effect on the system.
A workflow brief, on one page.
Review it whenever the work changes.
- Purpose
- The task, in operational terms, and the result a person needs.
- Access path
- The sources and systems it may reach, matched to the user’s role.
- Review
- Where a person checks the output before it goes further.
- Owner
- The person who answers for the workflow.
- Permitted actions
- What it may do once approved, and nothing more.
Ownership comes before automation.
A workflow without a named owner drifts as soon as the work around it changes.