Senior System Analyst at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
2021-12-07T20:41:06Z
Dec 7, 2021
Let's assume you are looking at a tool to provide you automation, the questions I would ask are:
1. Have you performed a survey of available skillsets with your IT/Analyst collective?
2. Have you defined a business target need to demonstrate capabilities?
3. Have you defined the metrics around which you will evaluate success/failure?
4. Have you the capacity to compare toolsets on a PoC VM platform without Bias?
5. Does the toolset/s have security, auditing and reporting capabilities to answer Risk?
Once you have the goal and the means to evaluate the outcome, what TOC will be acceptable based on future budget constraints of the business?
Will you need to hire skills that you don't currently have to provision a selected toolset?
What timeline has been set to achieve the above? Is it realistic?
Any software chosen will work to automate workflow, but the above are key Business decisions that need to be defined before evaluation.
Be aware, people will have bias and this should be suppressed if you want to select, purchase and build out a Workflow Automation solution that is fit for purpose.
If your budget is $10,000, but the product you're looking at is $50,000, you don't need to look at it; it's a waste of everyone's time.
The next most important consideration is support; the more capable an automation tool is, the more complex and difficult it is to install and configure. You need a vendor that will stand by and assist you until it's fully operational.
Add to my comment; we have to define "Workload Automation" and "Workflow Automation" to understand the Subject of our Talking; in Workload Automation we are dealing with the use of Resources; in Workflow Automation we are dealing with (time) dependencies between Workflow Units. SLURM or LSF are Workload Automation Tools.
ControlM, Airflow, Redwood Run my Jobs, Stonebranch, Kubeflow, Tensorflow, ... are besides other features Workflow Automation Tools.
The Flow of a Workflow could be represented as a Graph (DAG) or a Net (Petri Net if Events are properly included).
In addition to the previous answers:
- Flexibility and Agility - For better integration with existing architecture and its evolution
- Flexibility and Agility - In terms of architecture, to be able to move from one cloud to another or choose a multi-cloud strategy without editing your workload.
All businesses search for ways to reduce costs and maximize productivity. In order to achieve this, companies often need to get creative in just what kind of practices they implement. One of the methods that many companies turn to to achieve this goal is workload automation.
ease of install and use, comprehensive coverage, and a vendor that will partner with you to make sure that your ongoing needs will be met.
Let's assume you are looking at a tool to provide you automation, the questions I would ask are:
1. Have you performed a survey of available skillsets with your IT/Analyst collective?
2. Have you defined a business target need to demonstrate capabilities?
3. Have you defined the metrics around which you will evaluate success/failure?
4. Have you the capacity to compare toolsets on a PoC VM platform without Bias?
5. Does the toolset/s have security, auditing and reporting capabilities to answer Risk?
Once you have the goal and the means to evaluate the outcome, what TOC will be acceptable based on future budget constraints of the business?
Will you need to hire skills that you don't currently have to provision a selected toolset?
What timeline has been set to achieve the above? Is it realistic?
Any software chosen will work to automate workflow, but the above are key Business decisions that need to be defined before evaluation.
Be aware, people will have bias and this should be suppressed if you want to select, purchase and build out a Workflow Automation solution that is fit for purpose.
Budget is the first consideration.
If your budget is $10,000, but the product you're looking at is $50,000, you don't need to look at it; it's a waste of everyone's time.
The next most important consideration is support; the more capable an automation tool is, the more complex and difficult it is to install and configure. You need a vendor that will stand by and assist you until it's fully operational.
Besides the standard arguments, such as cost and support, my focus is a good architecture that reduces costs and helps support.
The Workflow graphs should be DAG's or better nested DAG's.
ControlM, Airflow supports nested DAG's;
Redwood only supports Chains, but with Chains nested DAG's could be implemented in a complex way.
Stonebranch supports only DAG's and nested DAG's have to be implemented in a complex and intransparent way.
Cloud Readiness
Its flexibility and cross platform ability
The simplicity of install, knowledge of technical staff when it comes to implementing a new process or migrating from older technology.
centralized, cross-platform, vendor-independent, stable and scalable.
Add to my comment; we have to define "Workload Automation" and "Workflow Automation" to understand the Subject of our Talking; in Workload Automation we are dealing with the use of Resources; in Workflow Automation we are dealing with (time) dependencies between Workflow Units. SLURM or LSF are Workload Automation Tools.
ControlM, Airflow, Redwood Run my Jobs, Stonebranch, Kubeflow, Tensorflow, ... are besides other features Workflow Automation Tools.
The Flow of a Workflow could be represented as a Graph (DAG) or a Net (Petri Net if Events are properly included).
Flexibility and Cross-Platform management
Flexible, with great cross platform management.
ability to scale, load-balancing, stability, ease of including custom logic
Stability, also the ability to manage across platforms (ex. Windows, Linux, Tandem etc. ).
In addition to the previous answers:
- Flexibility and Agility - For better integration with existing architecture and its evolution
- Flexibility and Agility - In terms of architecture, to be able to move from one cloud to another or choose a multi-cloud strategy without editing your workload.
Stable and Centralized Environment
Mobility Option and Centralized Management