This standard ensures recurring operational tasks are automated before they become a burden, preserving engineering focus for high-value work. It helps teams scale sustainably and avoid burnout from repetitive manual effort.
Aligned to our "Automate everything possible" policy, this standard improves efficiency, consistency, and system reliability. Without it, teams risk wasted effort, growing technical debt, and reduced capacity for innovation.
Level 1 – Initial: Operational tasks are handled manually and repeatedly. Toil accumulates, reducing team focus and morale, with no process for identifying automation opportunities.
Level 2 – Managed: Some teams begin automating common tasks, but efforts are inconsistent and reactive. Automation depends on individual initiative and is not tracked.
Level 3 – Defined: Teams proactively identify and automate recurring tasks. Practices for detecting and addressing toil are documented and adopted across teams.
Level 4 – Quantitatively Managed: Toil and automation metrics are tracked. Teams monitor frequency and effort of operational tasks, using data to prioritise automation efforts and reduce manual overhead.
Level 5 – Optimising: Automation is embedded in engineering culture. Teams continually refine their systems to eliminate toil, and automation opportunities are fed into roadmaps, platform improvements, and shared tooling.