Reducing manual work.
WHAT TO AUTOMATE
Exports from systems Combining routine sources Recalculating standard summaries
WHAT THAT SAVES
The repetitive part, which is most of the time spent.
HOW TO START
Build the analysis manually first Establish that it works and is useful Then automate the repetition
WHY IN THAT ORDER
Automating something wrong produces wrong answers faster.
WHAT SIMPLE AUTOMATION LOOKS LIKE
A spreadsheet that refreshes from a saved export A scheduled export from a system A template you paste new data into
WHAT NOT TO AUTOMATE
Judgement Interpretation Anything you have not verified manually
WHAT TO CHECK EVEN WHEN AUTOMATED
That it ran That the figures are plausible
THAT SECOND CHECK
Automated reports fail silently when a source changes.
WHAT TO DOCUMENT
How it works, so someone else can fix it.
WHAT TO AVOID
Automation nobody understands.
