Draw the complete handover
A workflow is more than its successful sequence. Record where information originates, which system owns the final record and who can correct it. Include what happens when an application is unavailable or a required field is empty. This makes it possible to agree on recovery before the first real customer is affected.
Treat repeated events as normal
A delayed response does not prove that an action failed. Retrying a request without checking may create a second project or send a duplicate message. Give important events a stable reference and check whether the intended action has already happened. Idempotency describes an operation whose intended effect stays the same when repeated; application behavior still needs deliberate implementation.
Create a visible exception queue
Do not let a failed task disappear into a technical log. Give staff a readable explanation, a link to the source record and an appropriate next action. Decide which failures can be retried automatically and which require investigation. An owner should be able to identify outstanding work without asking an engineer to inspect every execution.
Test recovery, not only success
Run a duplicate event, a timeout and an incomplete record through the workflow before launch. Check whether the system avoids repeated actions and preserves enough context for a person to resolve the issue. Measure unresolved exceptions as well as completed tasks. A fast workflow is useful only when people can trust its final state.
Further reading: MDN: Idempotent operations.
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Workflow automation
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