Assess the workflow with the people who run it
Start with a business priority and trace recent examples from input through review to the final action. Examine the current systems, existing prototypes, repeated preparation, exceptions and information boundaries.
Leadership provides the priority and decision path. Operating staff explain the real work. Halyard evaluates practical opportunities, dependencies and whether AI is justified. The output is a ranked recommendation with assumptions, constraints and a bounded starting scope.
Make a separate implementation decision
An assessment should support a decision to proceed, narrow the scope, address foundations or stop. It should not assume every opportunity will become a build.
Before approval, document the deliverables, exclusions, expected client time, access requirements, dependencies, recurring costs, acceptance criteria and support responsibilities. Compare buying, configuring an existing tool and building where those are credible options.
Design the information and review path
Specify the authoritative sources, permitted users, required outputs and actions the system may take. Describe what happens when information is missing, conflicting or outside the user's access.
A prototype can help staff inspect the proposed interaction before production connections are introduced. Label demonstrations and synthetic data clearly. Resolve important workflow questions with users before committing to wider implementation.
Build and test against representative work
Implement the agreed connections and workflow in the approved environment. Test normal cases, known mistakes, access boundaries, unavailable systems and the exceptions staff encounter in practice.
Acceptance records should connect each requirement to an expected result, observed result and reviewer. Measure the complete task, including correction and review time. Critical failures need resolution before the workflow is released for that use.
Introduce the workflow to a bounded team
Start with the agreed users and work types. Show staff what the tool can do, what requires checking, how to report a problem and how to use the fallback process.
Review whether people can complete the work under normal conditions and whether the intended benefit remains after checking the output. Address adoption friction and newly observed exceptions before extending the scope.
Transfer ownership and make changes deliberately
Provide the agreed operating documentation, acceptance evidence, known limitations, administrative responsibilities and support route. Name who maintains the workflow when a system, permission or business requirement changes.
Expansion is another decision. Use the evidence from the first workflow to assess the next team or entity, including any different information boundaries. The intended outcome is a capability with an accountable owner and an understandable cost of operation.