Definition

Workflow automation is the orchestration and execution of multi-step business or technical processes using software, replacing manual handoffs with reliable, observable runs. It spans business-first platforms (BPM), integration platforms (iPaaS), and developer-first workflow engines (Workflow-as-Code).

Key benefits

Consistency and auditability of processes
Reduced manual errors and time-to-complete
Observability and retries for reliability
Scalability across teams and environments

Common patterns

Event-driven triggers (webhooks, message queues)
Human-in-the-loop approvals and SLAs
Fan-out/fan-in for parallelization
Sagas and compensations for long-running processes

Tool landscape

For business teams: BPM suites like Camunda, Flowable. For integrations: iPaaS like Zapier, Make, n8n. For developers: Workflow-as-Code like Temporal and Durable Functions. For data pipelines: Airflow, Dagster, Prefect.

When to choose what

Citizen-led automations → iPaaS
Complex human tasks and modeling → BPM
Code-first reliability with long-running state → Workflow-as-Code
Data/ETL orchestration → Data orchestrators

Pick the tool that matches ownership, complexity, and SLAs.

Further reading: See vendor overviews and documentation for current capabilities.

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