Automate what makes sense: Data, principles and practice#

Brian Jeggesen (no affiliation listed)

• Why: Diagnoses the commonest automation failure mode — tools are fine, the organization stalls — and gives a concrete starting step rather than a framework pitch.
• What: An explanation of why "automate what makes sense" becomes a permanent excuse to automate nothing: unclear definitions of "safe" and "correct," fragile inputs, and changes that can't be proven before shipping. Offers a pragmatic path to make automation a normal way of working, with guardrails and evidence instead of optimism, and a first step implementable immediately. (from abstract only)
• How: Principles-and-practice approach — pre-ship proof of correctness, guardrails, and incremental confidence-building rather than heroic one-off projects.
• Where applicable: Any network organization; general technique with no scale or topology dependency.