1. Current-state workflow & record map
The real path across people, systems, and documents, including the unofficial spreadsheets and email chains actually used.
Primary sprint · Process before platform
Understand the work before you encode it.
A fixed-scope design sprint for teams that want to automate a manual controlled workflow and do not want to automate the current mess. Process before platform: reconstruct the real work, the records, the judgment points, and the control boundary first. Then decide what may be automated, what stays human, and what any build has to satisfy.
About 2 weeks One named workflow Vendor-neutral Design, not build Fee after short inquiry
Why this exists
If the process is wrong, the platform will make it faster and harder to see.
Automation projects often start with a tool. The workflow is reverse-engineered to fit the demo. Shadow steps disappear from the diagram and reappear in production. Review is promised and not designed. The unofficial spreadsheet survives because nobody named the authoritative record.
This sprint is the pre-build look. It is useful when IT, a vendor, or an AI pilot is already in the air, and Quality or Operations needs a control boundary before anyone writes a statement of work for a build.
Strong fit when
- There is a live intent to automate, digitize, or "add AI" to a controlled workflow
- The current process is partly undocumented, disputed, or held together by workarounds
- Someone will still have to review, sign, or defend the output
- You want requirements before a build, not a tool bake-off dressed up as discovery
Deliverables
What you get from the readiness sprint
A complete decision package for one named workflow before spending on software or implementation.
2. Authoritative vs derived records
Identifies which records a later auditor or reviewer should trust versus which are uncontrolled working copies.
3. Judgment & exception map
Where human accountability must remain intact and what evidence an approval must leave behind.
4. Automation boundary
Explicit separation of steps: deterministic rules, AI assistance, human judgment, or "leave it alone."
5. Control & evidence requirements
Defines the non-negotiable logging, traceability, and fallback criteria any later vendor or build must satisfy.
6. Failure modes & pilot decision
What happens when inputs fail or tools go down, plus a clear decision: proceed to a bounded build, clean process first, or do not automate.
Representative scenario
Not a client result: deviation write-up before automation
A team wants an AI copilot to draft deviation narratives because volume is high. Today an intake form, a shared inbox, a Word template (dev-142-final-v3-USE-THIS.docx), and a quality-system record all hold part of the story.
The sprint does not build the drafter. It defines the allowed sources, the judgment that must stay human, the record the approval has to leave behind, and whether this is even a defensible first automation.
Complementary to your QMS
You should still use your QMS
Automation does not replace the quality system. It has to live inside it.
This sprint is useful when the organization is about to spend on a tool and needs an independent, workflow-level specification first. Your procedures and validation obligations remain yours. I make requirements legible so whoever builds or validates is not guessing.
Scope boundary
Bounded design sprint, not open-ended consulting
About two weeks. One named workflow. One accountable owner. One decision.
Included
- One named workflow with a defined start and end
- One accountable owner or sponsor
- A defined set of systems, records, and proposed tools
- Vendor-neutral requirements and control design
- One revision round
- One decision: automate, clean first, or do not automate
Not included
- Selecting or implementing a vendor platform
- Production build or model training
- Formal validation execution (CSV / CSA)
- Company-wide AI strategy
- Autonomous decisions without human control
- Unlimited integrations or revision rounds
If the decision is to build, follow-on implementation (Controlled workflow automation) is a separately scoped engagement with human review, tests, fallback, and operating records. It is never a silent extension of the sprint.
Bring the workflow you want to automate, not a request to add AI.
The free diagnostic tests whether an automation readiness sprint is the right first move.