What is workflow automation and how to get started

Workflow automation offers a multitude of benefits across business operations. It significantly enhances efficiency and productivity to ensure continuous improvement. Here are some other key benefits of workflow automation:

Automating repetitive tasks enables employees to focus on more strategic work, increasing overall productivity. Automated processes complete tasks faster and can operate around the clock, significantly increasing efficiency.

Automated workflows minimize human error by ensuring consistent task execution according to predefined rules. This leads to higher accuracy in data entry, calculations, and processing tasks. It also reduces the time and resources spent on correcting mistakes.

Your task tracker should facilitate communication and collaboration among team members. These tools provide a platform for dialogue, document sharing, feedback, and coordination, improving teamwork and project success.

Automating routine tasks reduces the need for manual labor. By minimizing errors, companies save on the costs associated with fixing them. Workflow automation also optimizes resource allocation, ensuring teams don’t under or overspend.

Workflow automation often has features promoting a collaborative work culture among team members, regardless of location. Real-time updates, shared workspaces, and automated notifications help keep everyone on the same page, improving teamwork and promoting collaborative meetings.

Workflow automation allows businesses to handle an increasing workload without proportionally increasing their workforce. This supports business growth without compromising quality or efficiency.

You can apply workflow automation across various teams and roles to streamline project planning and boost productivity. Here are some specific workflow automation examples that can help you understand how different teams use automation:

Product managers can use workflow automation to enhance decision-making and streamline product development processes. For example, they can implement an automated product feedback collection and analysis system that gathers user feedback from multiple channels. This system can automatically categorize feedback based on sentiment and feature areas, providing insights for future product improvements. 

Another powerful way to use workflow automation as a product manager is with feature request prioritization. Product managers can set up an automated scoring system that evaluates feature requests based on predefined criteria such as potential impact, development effort, and alignment with product strategy. This workflow automation ensures that the most valuable features are prioritized for development. 

Additionally, sprint planning and task allocation can be automated. Sprint backlogs can be generated based on priority scores and team capacity, and tasks can be assigned to team members based on availability. 

Engineering leads can use workflow automation to improve code quality and streamline development processes. For instance, they can implement an automated code review process that assigns reviews to team members based on their expertise and workload, with built-in reminders for pending reviews. This ensures that code is reviewed quickly by the most appropriate team members. 

Continuous integration and deployment pipelines are another area where automation can help. Engineering leads can reduce manual errors and speed up the development cycle by setting up a system that automatically notifies the right person to run tests and deploy to staging environments.

Bug tracking and resolution can also be automated with a triage system that categorizes incoming bug reports, assigns them to the appropriate team members, and escalates critical issues.

Project managers can use workflow automation to enhance project visibility and resource management. For example, they can implement automated project status reporting that collects progress updates from team members, compiles them into a standardized report, and distributes them to stakeholders regularly. 

Resource allocation and capacity planning can also be automated to optimize team performance. You can set up a system to track team members’ workloads and automatically suggest task reassignments to balance workloads and manage project timelines. 

Project managers can also automate risk assessment and mitigation workflows, helping team members identify potential risks and triggering mitigation actions for high-priority risks, helping to manage project challenges proactively.

Marketing teams can significantly boost their efficiency and effectiveness through workflow automation. For example, whenever a task is created for email marketing projects, Jira can automatically create design and copywriting tickets with specs and guidelines and then link them together. This automation streamlines marketing campaign execution and keeps all team members on the same page.

Content management is another area where workflow automation can help. Content teams can implement workflows that automatically schedule workers based on availability and workloads. The content then moves through a pipeline based on which workers are responsible for which aspect of the content creation process.

To get the most out of workflow automation software, consider these best practices: 

• Start small and scale gradually: Begin by setting goals for one simple process. As you learn and see results, expand to more complex workflows. 
• Involve key stakeholders in the process: Include team members who will use the automated workflows. Their input helps create effective systems and improves adoption. 
• Continuously monitor and optimize automated workflows: Regularly check performance and adjust as needed. Track metrics like time saved and user satisfaction to refine your automation. 
• Keep a balance between automation and human oversight: Design workflows with points for human review, especially for critical decisions. This ensures automation enhances rather than replaces human judgment. 

Selecting the right workflow automation software is crucial for achieving the desired benefits. Here are some essential features to consider in workflow automation solutions:

A user-friendly interface and intuitive design ensure employees can easily navigate the tool, fostering swift adoption and a quicker return on investment.

Jira’s workflow automation capabilities are designed with simplicity in mind. They allow teams to build custom workflows that reflect real-life processes without complexity. Try Jira workflows to experience our user-friendly approach firsthand.

Seamless integration with existing systems and applications is vital to ensure smooth data flow between different tools and platforms. It also inhibits data silos and maximizes automated workflows.

Jira’s powerful automation engine integrates seamlessly with various tools like Slack, Teams, Figma, GitHub, and many more, enabling your team to reduce manual tasks and scale operations.

The ability to customize workflows according to specific business needs is crucial. A flexible workflow automation tool adapts to your unique operational requirements, securing alignment with strategic objectives.

Jira workflows enable teams to build custom workflows that reduce friction and enable faster delivery.

Workflow automation solutions should handle increasing volumes of work as the business grows. This includes supporting multiple workflows, users, and data without compromising performance or reliability.

Jira’s robust platform is designed to grow with your team, supporting your workflow automation needs as you scale.

Insightful reporting and analytics are indispensable for gauging workflow efficiency. These capabilities highlight areas for improvement and enable data-driven decision-making through access to real-time insights.

Jira provides comprehensive reporting tools to help teams track progress and identify areas for optimization.

Automation tools must have robust security measures such as encryption, access controls, and audit logs to protect against unauthorized access and data breaches.

Jira's robust security measures ensure your data remains protected within the Atlassian Cloud environment. Create and customize permissions with granular control over who can access what through customizable roles. Jira also offers bolstered security safeguards like IP allow listing, ensuring only those from trusted networks can access your instance.

Mobile accessibility is increasingly important. It enables staff to remain productive and progress smoothly in workflows regardless of geographical location.

Jira’s mobile interface is designed for easy viewing and interaction with issues on mobile devices. When accessing Jira from a smartphone, you’re presented with an optimized page version.

With the mobile interface, you can view issues, comments, attachments, issue links, and favorite filters, as well as perform basic operations such as adding comments, watching or voting on issues, and assigning tasks to team members. 

Get Jira Automation for free and discover how these features can transform your workflow processes.

Jira’s workflow automation tools can transform how your team works. Whether you’re managing products, leading engineering teams, or running marketing campaigns, Jira helps streamline your process and boost productivity. It’s easy to use, integrates with other tools you already use, and grows with your team. Plus, it keeps your data secure while letting you work from anywhere. 

Ready to cut down on repetitive tasks and focus on what matters? Try Jira Workflows to see how Jira can help your team work smarter, not harder.