The best automation leaves people in control.
Events, approvals and error recovery: the foundations of a reliable process.
The starting point
A useful workflow has a recognisable starting point, observable steps and a verifiable result. Complexity is not a goal.
From intention to method
Irreversible actions and commercial commitments require a human decision. For other operations, record events and make steps repeatable without creating duplicates.
The next action
Design for failure too: timeouts, bounded retries, understandable messages and a person responsible who knows when to step in.