GODAE: managing AI transformation

Managing AI transformation.

A practical framework for improving work inside organizations.

AI makes building easier. Improving work still needs direction.

One product campaign. Briefs, brand PDFs, SVGs, facts and approvals scatter across tools.

Manage the change through five decisions.

GODAE is the management cycle: Goal, Observe, Decide, Act and Evaluate. Begin with the end in mind.

GODAE keeps transformation accountable.

Define success first. Carry the same requirements through design, tests, the pilot and its results.

Set the Goal.

Business Workflow Analyst + Business Owner: define the result and the behavior that success requires.

What are we actually trying to improve?

The Business Workflow Analyst writes the outcome and required behavior. The Business Owner agrees targets and owns the result.

Observe the work.

Business Workflow Analyst: document today’s work and write its acceptance examples.

Go see how work actually happens.

The Workflow Analyst follows the campaign: steps, UX, tools, permissions, owners and failure cases.

Every workflow has three elements.

System is the logic. Tools carry out the work. People own decisions and exceptions. Describe success and failure inside each.

Write the workflow and its acceptance brief.

The Analyst records the Goal, current workflow, expected behavior and scoring examples. This is the input to both harnesses.

Decide what changes.

Workflow / Agent Developer: design the workflow and the tests and evals that prove it.

How could this work better?

The Workflow / Agent Developer removes waste, assigns work to people, code or AI, and uses acceptance examples to compare designs.

Inside Decide: design two connected harnesses.

The workflow performs the task. The test and eval harness proves its behavior and quality against the same brief.

Filter: what comes in?

Design valid triggers, trusted context and permitted access. Write tests for missing, stale and unauthorized input.

Structure: how does the work get done?

Design steps, models, tools, UX, state and recovery. Pair each expected behavior with a test or scored example.

Gate: what must pass?

Tests verify exact behavior. Evals score quality. Required human approval checks authority before publication.

One design. Every requirement accounted for.

The Developer hands off both harnesses: execution architecture and the cases, rubrics and thresholds used to accept it.

Act on the design.

Workflow / Agent Developer: implement both harnesses, then run a controlled pilot.

Build the workflow. Connect its checks.

The Developer implements the controlled workflow, with tests and evals at its boundaries. Activepieces is one implementation option.

Build the tests and evals that prove it.

Implement the companion suite from the acceptance brief. Run it before the pilot and again whenever behavior changes.

Evaluate the result.

Analyst + Business Owner: review behavior, business value and adoption against the Goal.

Did the workflow behave as required?

Analyst + Business Owner review traces, behavior tests and scored quality against the acceptance brief.

Did it improve the business Goal?

Compare results, tokens and full cost with the baseline and targets. Report verified value and ROI together.

Is transformation reaching real use?

Count analyzed processes, workflows in build, built and active. Review adoption against the Goal, then fix, stop, improve or scale.

Three models. One process for transformation.

GODAE manages the change. Observe describes the work. Decide designs both harnesses. Acceptance criteria connect every step.

Start with one workflow. Earn the right to scale.

One Analyst, one Developer and one accountable Business Owner. One person may hold several roles. Scale the evidence of improvement.

Side Quests.

Make room to go off-track. Anyone on the team can build and try a new idea.

An idea. An afternoon. A working prototype.

Any team member can build an idea, workflow or solution without a permission round or the formal process. An afternoon to one or two days.

Try it together. Learn from real use.

Test with teammates, then in a real situation. Keep what helps, change what does not, and let discoveries challenge how the team works.

Thank you for your time.

One workflow. One accountable cycle. Continuous improvement.

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