Automations Best Practice

Selected use cases

The following videos will showcase and explain dedicated and selected use cases to get inspired to build your own Automations, giving you insights into the Why, How, and What for each use case.

Setting the Quality Seal using surveys

This short tutorial will show you how to set the Quality Seal to approved within a survey, so users filling out the survey do not need to do both - filling in the survey and navigating back to the Fact Sheet to approve the Quality Seal subsequently.

Setting the Quality Seal accomplishing a To-Do

This short tutorial will show you how to set the Quality Seal by marking a To-Do as complete to avoid assignees have to do both - marking the To-Do as complete and navigating to the Fact Sheet and approving the Quality Seal.

Assigning Automation-created To-Dos to teams

This short tutorial will show you how to assign Automation-created To-Dos to teams instead of single fixed users to avoid manual maintenance of the accuracy of the respective Automation templates.

Concatenating To-Dos sequentially

This short tutorial will show you how to concatenate multiple Automation-created To-Dos sequentially - to only have one To-Do created after the other one is marked as complete.

Best practices by triggers

The following combinations of triggers, conditions and actions will give you additional ideas, on how to leverage the Automation feature best. Of course you may combine all triggers, conditions, and actions for individual Automations besides these best practices.

The following selected ideas are clustered by their triggering event.

On Fact Sheet creation

Add default fixed users as subscriptions

This can be helpful, in case certain fixed users, e.g. all EAs, should be assigned as soon as new Applications are added to a workspace.

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Fact Sheet is created”
Decide on whether to include or ignore Fact Sheets that are created by technical users in the second step
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type
Choose the “Add subscription” in the third step (“Set subscription” also works)
Choose “User” as the “New Subscriber” and select the user afterwards
Choose the “Subscription Type” and subsequently but optionally one or more “Subscription roles” to apply
Add more users via the same steps, if wanted
Save the Automation

Add Fact Sheet creator as subscription

To avoid orphaned Fact Sheets in the workspace and have the Fact Sheet creator documented besides the Audit log, it is helpful to assign the creator of a Fact Sheet as a first subscription, e.g. “Observer - Creator”.

This also discloses the opportunity to automatically send a (running) survey to that automatically assigned Fact Sheet creator, e.g. in combination with an automatically set tag “New” (see below).

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Fact Sheet is created”
Decide on whether to include or ignore Fact Sheets that are created by technical users in the second step
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type
Choose the “Add subscription” in the third step (“Set subscription” also works)
Choose “Fact Sheet creator” as the “New Subscriber” and select the user afterwards
Choose the “Subscription Type” and subsequently but optionally one or more “Subscription roles” to apply
Save the Automation

Create Action item for Fact Sheet creator for newly created Fact Sheets

By automatically creating an Action item with detailed information about what to do, e.g. filling the mandatory fields and approving, finding the Application Owner, Fact Sheet creators can be guided through the approval process of new Fact Sheets.

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Fact Sheet is created”
Decide on whether to include or ignore Fact Sheets that are created by technical users in the second step
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type
Choose the “Create Action item” action in the third step and subsequently define a title, description and due date - and choose “Fact Sheet creator” to assign the To-Do to
Save Automation

Add default tags or single selects to newly created Fact Sheets

Using this Automation newly created Fact Sheets can be pre-filled with first tags or single-select to increase data quality and avoid manual effort - or clearly marked as “New” Fact Sheets.
Default values can also be set by our customer support team, Automations offer a way though to adapt it yourself and also have the benefit that the user creating the Fact Sheet does not necessarily have to have the rights to set the default field (or tag).

Or:

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Fact Sheet is created”
Decide on whether to include or ignore Fact Sheets that are created by technical users in the second step
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type
Choose the “Add tag” or “Set field” action in the third step and subsequently the tag/field and value to add on creation
Add more actions for more tags or fields via the same steps, if wanted
Save the Automation

On Field changes

📘
Information
Currently just single-select fields are supported. Please note that also hidden fields can be used in Automations, but the Obsolescence Risk fields technically needed for the risk calculation are not functional in Automations.

Change a field based on one other field value

This can be helpful, to set the value of one (e.g. read-only) field based on one or many other fields, e.g. if one of many single-selects regarding personal data of employees, suppliers or customers is filled with "Yes", set the read-only field "Compliance relevance" to yes as well and avoid data inconsistency and manual data clean-up efforts.

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Field changes”, choose the field and the triggering values "from" and "to", incl. options for "anything" or "empty"
Decide on whether to include or ignore Fact Sheets that are created by technical users in the second step
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type, or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Set field” action in the third step and subsequently the field and value to set based on the previous field change
Add more actions via the same steps, if wanted
Save the Automation

Create Action item based on a field change

This can be valuable if a) the presence of a critical value is altered, to create To-Dos for relevant users (fixed or subscriptions) to check if the change was rightful or b) a new critical value is added to create a check, to see if further necessary steps need to be taken. For example to create an Action item for the EA team if the Business criticality of an Application is set to mission-critical or if a mission-critical app is downgraded in its criticality.

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Field changes”, choose the field and the triggering values "from" and "to", incl. options for "anything" or "empty"
Decide on whether to include or ignore Fact Sheets that are created by technical users in the second step
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type, or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Create Action item” action in the third step and subsequently define a title, description and due date - and choose “Fact Sheet subscriptions” or “Fixed user(s)” to assign the To-Do to
Save the Automation

Alternatively to a fixed list of users, subscriptions of a fixed reference Fact Sheet of any type in the workspace can be used, e.g. User group or a custom Fact Sheet that represents team/org entities to reduce manual maintenance and enable dynamic assignment. For that choose "Fixed Fact Sheet subscriptions" for the assignees instead and subsequently choose the reference Fact Sheet and subscription type and role.

On Lifecycle phase change

Assign Action item to subscriptions/fixed users on Lifecycle phase changes

Reacting to the realization of a lifecycle phase - next to the OOTB notifications offered - especially to assign To-Dos to relevant users increases the actionability of LeanIX immensely. Furthermore, to define individually which amount of days after or before the lifecycle date of a specific lifecycle state, incl. custom lifecycles, gives you the freedom to adapt to your processes and check in relative to milestones, such as End of life dates. E.g., assign To-Dos to your EA team or the Application Owners as soon as an End of life date is approaching.
Within Application Rationalization efforts, this automation can help you check in with relevant stakeholders, creating To-Dos 90 or 30 days before a phase change is anticipated and planned.

How to set up:

Define the name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Lifecycle phase changes”, choose the Lifecycle field (OOTB vs. custom) and the exact state end the automation should be considering
Optionally decide via the toggle whether to trigger the Automation X days before or after the actual phase change date
Decide on whether to include or ignore Fact Sheets that are created by technical users in the second step
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Create Action item” action in the third step and subsequently define a title, description, and due date - and choose “Fact Sheet subscriptions” or “Fixed user(s)” to assign the To-Do to
Save the Automation

Add tag on Lifecycle phase changes

To be able to react to the realization of a lifecycle phase - next to the OOTB notifications offered - e.g., with automatic data changes, such as adding a tag "End of life reached" or "Archive" - or removing a certain tag once a phase is reached, removes manual data maintenance efforts and increases data quality.

How to set up:

Define the name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Lifecycle phase changes”, choose the Lifecycle field (OOTB vs. custom), and the exact state end the automation should be considering
Optionally decide via the toggle whether to trigger the Automation X days before or after the actual phase change date
Decide on whether to include or ignore Fact Sheets that are created by technical users in the second step
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Add tag” or “Set field” action in the third step, and subsequently, the corresponding tag or single-select field and values to the chosen state change trigger
Save Automation

Set single-select field on Lifecycle phase changes

To be able to react to the realization of a lifecycle phase - next to the OOTB notifications offered - e.g. with automatic data changes, such as maintaining a (read-only) field with the current lifecycle phase active, can help to increase the visibility of the current actual state, and facilitate filtering. It is also possible to map the lifecycle states to other categories, e.g. "inactive" vs. "active" on individual terms. These single-select fields could also be used then as conditions in Automations.

How to set up:

Set up a new single-select field to represent the lifecycle states or custom categories in the meta model configuration
Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Lifecycle phase changes”, choose the Lifecycle field (OOTB vs. custom) and the exact state end the automation should be considering
Optionally decide via the toggle whether to trigger the Automation X days before or after the actual phase change date
Decide on whether to include or ignore Fact Sheets that are created by technical users in the second step
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type, or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Set field” action in the third step and subsequently the field and value to set based on the previous field change
Save the Automation

On Quality State change

Assign Action item to subscriptions on Quality State changes

If a Quality Seal of a certain Fact Sheet type breaks, it is useful to automatically assign a dedicated To-Do to the subscriptions, e.g. Application Owner and Business Owner, for checking the changes in the Audit log and re-applying the Quality Seal afterward. This is easily possible with the following Automation.

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Quality State changes to” and subsequently decide on the actual state that should trigger the Automation, e.g. “Broken”
Decide on whether to include or ignore Fact Sheets Quality State changes that were caused by technical users (in this case not recommended!)
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type, or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Create Action item” action in the third step and subsequently define a title, description and due date - and choose “Fact Sheet subscription(s)” as the assignee and subsequently the actual role(s) and type(s) to assign the To-Do to
Save Automation

Assign Action item to fixed users on Quality State changes

If a Quality Seal of a certain Fact Sheet type breaks, optionally with a certain tag or category, it is useful to automatically assign a dedicated To-Do to fixed users (that are potentially not subscribed) to make them aware, e.g. inform the EA(s) or Solution Architect(s) that the Quality Seal of a “mission critical” Application broke.

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Quality State changes to” and subsequently decide on the actual state that should trigger the Automation, e.g. “Broken”
Decide on whether to include or ignore Fact Sheets Quality State changes that were caused by technical users (in this case not recommended!)
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type, or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Create Action item” action in the third step and subsequently define a title, description and due date - and choose “Users” as the assignee and subsequently the fixed user(s) to add as assignees
Save Automation

Assign tag or single-select field value on Quality State change

Whereas the Quality State is a field on a Fact Sheet by itself and can be used for many things, assigning a tag (from a designated tag group, single select, with all states as tags) based on the Quality State changes from the field unlocks certain functionalities, such as using the value for pie and bar charts in KPIs.
Alternatively, also a single-select field can be used to represent the Quality state changes.

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Quality State changes to” and subsequently decide on the actual state that should trigger the Automation, e.g. “Broken”
Decide on whether to include or ignore Fact Sheets Quality State changes that were caused by technical users (in this case not recommended!)
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type, or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Add tag” or “Set field” action in the third step and subsequently the corresponding tag or single-select field and values to the chosen state change trigger
Save Automation
Repeat creating this Automation for every Quality State to have them all covered - easily use the copy function for Automations in the Automations list for this

On tag added/removed

Create Action Item for subscriptions on tag added/removed

As tags are an integral part of a Fact Sheet to cluster and categorize, changes to them often bring the necessity for certain users to act on it, e.g. when an "Eliminate" tag is added to an Application, the Application Owner has to make sure to follow a checklist. For that reason it is beneficial to notify them with a To-Do.

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Tag is added” or "Tag is removed" and subsequently decide on the actual tag
Decide on whether to include or ignore tag changes that were caused by technical users
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type, or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Create Action item” action in the third step and subsequently define a title, description and due date - and choose “Fact Sheet subscription(s)” as the assignee and subsequently the actual role(s) and type(s) to assign the To-Do to
Save Automation

Create Action Item for fixed users on tag added/removed

Another use case where tag changes require users' attention is for example when an "Eliminate" tag is added to an Application and the Enterprise Architect(s) have to be prepared for retiring it. For that reason, it is beneficial to notify them, a fixed list of users, with a To-Do as well.

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Tag is added” or "Tag is removed" and subsequently decide on the actual tag
Decide on whether to include or ignore tag changes that were caused by technical users
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type, or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Create Action item” action in the third step and subsequently define a title, description and due date - and choose “Users” as the assignee and subsequently the fixed user(s) to add as assignees
Save Automation

Add subscription on tag added/removed

Some tags might also require even more visibility, e.g. Applications that are marked as "Mission critical". As notifications on changes on Fact Sheets are mostly targeted to subscribers, it is useful to assign a main responsible, e.g. the Security Officer, as a subscription to those Fact Sheets that get marked with "Mission critical".

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Tag is added” or "Tag is removed" and subsequently decide on the actual tag
Decide on whether to include or ignore tag changes that were caused by technical users
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type, or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Add subscription” in the third step (“Set subscription” also works)
Choose “User” as the “New Subscriber” and select the user afterwards
Choose the “Subscription Type” and subsequently but optionally one or more “Subscription roles” to apply
Add more users via the same steps, if wanted
Save the Automation

Conditional tagging

Tags can also be dependant on each other. Trigger on tag removal or adding - especially in combination with the tag condition - can be used to ensure data consistency for these cases. For example, whenever a tag from the "region" tag group is applied, that is subject to GDPR, add the tag "GDPR relevant" to it.

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Tag is added” or "Tag is removed" and subsequently decide on the actual tag
Decide on whether to include or ignore tag changes that were caused by technical users
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type, or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Add tag” (or alternatively “Remove tag” action) in the third step
Add more tags via the same steps, if wanted
Save Automation

On subscription added/removed

Create Action Item for subscriptions on subscription added/removed

As subscriptions are an integral part of a Fact Sheet to engage users, collaborate and thereby increase data quality, changes to them often bring the necessity for certain other users to act on it, e.g. when an "Accountable" or "Responsible" of a certain role is removed or added to an Application, the other subscriptions have to make sure to find a replacement or check why that person was removed. For that reason, it is beneficial to notify them with a To-Do.

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Subscription is added” or "Subscription is removed" and subsequently decide on the actual type of subscription, as well as optionally the role
Decide on whether to include or ignore subscription changes that were caused by technical users
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type, or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Create Action item” action in the third step and subsequently define a title, description and due date - and choose (other) “Fact Sheet subscription(s)” as the assignee and subsequently the actual role(s) and type(s) to assign the To-Do to
Save Automation

Create Action Item for fixed users on tag added/removed

Another use case on where subscription changes require attention is for a specific set of users, e.g. Enterprise Architect(s), to be informed when an Accountable is removed. For that reason, it is beneficial to notify them with a To-Do as well.

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Subscription is added” or "Subscription is removed" and subsequently decide on the actual type of subscription, as well as optionally the role
Decide on whether to include or ignore subscription changes that were caused by technical users
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type, or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Create Action item” action in the third step and subsequently define a title, description and due date - and choose “Users” as the assignee and subsequently the fixed user(s) to add as assignees
Save Automation

Add subscription on subscription added/removed

Some subscription changes, especially removals, might also require even more visibility, e.g. Applications that are marked as "Mission critical". As notifications on changes on Fact Sheets are mostly targeted to subscribers, it is useful to assign a further user, e.g. the Enterprise Architects themselves, as a subscription to those Fact Sheets that are marked with "Mission critical" and where the Accountable or Responsible is removed, to search for a replacement or just have an eye on in the meantime.

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Subscription is added” or "Subscription is removed" and subsequently decide on the actual type of subscription, as well as optionally the role
Decide on whether to include or ignore subscription changes that were caused by technical users
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type, or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Add subscription” in the third step (“Set subscription” also works)
Choose “User” as the “New Subscriber” and select the user afterwards
Choose the “Subscription Type” and subsequently but optionally one or more “Subscription roles” to apply
Add more users via the same steps, if wanted
Save the Automation

Tagging on subscription changes

Especially missing or removed subscriptions are, as mentioned before, a reason to act on. One way to highlight those Fact Sheets is to apply a certain tag (e.g. "Application Owner missing") once this subscription is removed. It makes it easy to filter for those Fact Sheets as a result.

How to set up:

Define name, optionally description, and Owner of the Automation
Define which Fact Sheet type the Automation should be running on in the first step
As the trigger in the first step, use “Subscription is added” or "Subscription is removed" and subsequently decide on the actual type of subscription, as well as optionally the role
Decide on whether to include or ignore tag changes that were caused by technical users
Optionally decide whether the Automation should just be triggered on a certain category of the Fact Sheet type, or on Fact Sheets with certain tags or single-select values
Choose the “Add tag” (or alternatively “Remove tag” action) in the third step
Add more tags via the same steps, if wanted
Save Automation