Business Cases
Part of Automation programme reviews
Deciding when to redesign or retire an automated process
Use business need, observed results and transition risk to choose whether to repair, redesign or retire a live automated process.
Redesign an automated process when the business result is still needed but the current route no longer delivers it well. Retire it when the result is no longer needed, a better route has replaced it, or continued operation cannot be justified. Base either decision on observed outcomes and a plan for unfinished cases, not run status alone.
Check whether the need remains
Ask the process owner who still needs the result, which cases still arise and what would happen if the automation stopped accepting new work. A changed policy, system or team may remove the need or change how it should be met.
Compare workable choices over the same period: repair the current route, redesign the process and its automation, or retire the automation in favour of an authorised route. Include human review, support, corrections and transition work.
A redesign can be worthwhile even if it adds necessary checking; a reliably running automation can still be ready for retirement.
Finding / Decision to consider
- The outcome matters, but cases repeatedly need repair
- Redesign the input, rule or handoff with affected teams
- The outcome matters, but automation is the wrong method
- Move work to a better authorised route
- The outcome or eligible cases have disappeared
- Prepare retirement, including records, queued items and access
- Evidence is insufficient or effects are disputed
- Hold expansion and collect the missing case evidence
These are prompts, not automatic thresholds. A consequential wrong outcome may call for a controlled pause while the longer-term decision is made.
Design the change around the result
If redesign is chosen, restate the business endpoint. Identify steps that can be removed, decisions that still need authority and evidence the receiving team requires. Compare recent cases with the proposed route. State which cases remain outside it and who handles them.
Resolve a disputed business rule before changing workflow configuration. Specify the new behaviour and the treatment of affected cases already in progress. After release, assess the redesigned route against its outcome and quality checks.
Retire without losing work
Retirement needs an item-level transition plan. Identify new arrivals, active runs, queued cases, retries and attempts whose destination result is uncertain.
Assign each item a disposition: confirmed complete, transferred to an authorised replacement route, held for an owner's decision or cancelled under an authorised rule. Check destination records before repeating an attempted action.
Stopping new starts may leave pending work to continue; the effect depends on the platform and configuration. For Power Automate cloud flows specifically, Microsoft's guidance says that turning off a running flow allows pending runs to complete.
Verify the actual stop behaviour before describing work as withdrawn. Reconcile manual and automated work, then remove unneeded access and schedules through the organisation's approved process. Retain the decision history under applicable record rules.
Record who approved redesign or retirement, the evidence used, unresolved cases, replacement owner and date for checking the transition. The business case remains open while affected items lack a confirmed result or authorised next action.
