Keep work moving when automation is unavailable

What this means for your practice

Write a practical manual process and rehearse returning to normal work. Decide how completed manual items will be identified so recovery does not do the same work again.

A practical conversation with your supplier

Pause a test workflow and process a fictional item manually. Then restart and check how the system avoids doing that work again. Agree who ends the fallback and reviews outstanding items. Recovery includes checking which temporary work is complete and what still needs attention before the automation resumes.

Plan the first improvement

Write the manual process with the staff who will use it, starting from the work that must continue. Identify how new items are captured, who takes responsibility and where their progress is recorded during the interruption. Keep the instructions accessible through an approved route that does not depend entirely on the failed tool. Agree who decides to activate the fallback and how colleagues learn that it is in use. Plan the return to normal operation at the same time.

The team needs to distinguish items completed manually, items still waiting and items whose outcome is uncertain before automation resumes. Rehearse one fictional item through the manual route and then recovery. Ask the supplier how it avoids duplicating that work when queued events are processed. Record gaps exposed by the exercise and verify the corrections. The fallback is useful when an unfamiliar authorised colleague can follow it, not merely when its author can explain what they intended.

How to check the result

Measure unresolved or duplicated items after recovery.