Task Automation

Automation increases efficiency, consistency, and reliability of routine operations.

Automation types

• Scheduled: Time-based execution (cron jobs).
• Event-driven: Triggered by system events.
• Workflow: Multi-step processes (CI/CD pipelines).
• RPA: Robotic process automation for business tasks.

Common automation targets

• System maintenance: Backups, updates, cleanup.
• Deployments: Build, test, deploy code.
• Monitoring: Health checks, alerts.
• Data processing: ETL, report generation.
• Testing: Unit, integration, E2E tests.

Automation tools

• Shell scripts: Bash, PowerShell.
• Task schedulers: Cron, Windows Task Scheduler.
• Workflow engines: Apache Airflow, Jenkins.
• Configuration management: Ansible, Terraform.
• CI/CD: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI.

Best practices

• Automate frequently repeated tasks.
• Document what automation does.
• Include error handling and logging.
• Test automation in non-production first.
• Monitor automated task execution.
• Maintain idempotency (safe to run multiple times).