Automation Coverage Calculator
Calculate the percentage of infrastructure operational tasks covered by Ansible automation versus manual processes.
Inputs
Distinct recurring operational tasks across your environment (patching, user provisioning, config changes, deployments, etc.).
How many of those task types have an Ansible playbook/role covering them.
Automation Coverage
70.0%
Automation Maturity
Mature — most workflows automated
Manual Task Types Remaining
18task types
Step by step
Manual task types remaining
60 − 42
= 18 task types
Coverage: automated / total × 100
42 / 60 × 100
= 70.0%
Maturity level
based on coverage thresholds
= Mature — most workflows automated
How it works
Automation coverage = automated_task_types / total_operational_task_types × 100. This measures breadth of automation across distinct recurring workflows (not run frequency) — a task type counts as 'automated' if a maintained playbook/role exists for it, regardless of how often it runs. Tracking this over time highlights where manual toil is concentrated and whether an automation investment program is making measurable progress.
Formula
coverage_percent = (automated_tasks / total_operational_tasks) × 100
- automated_tasks
- Tasks managed by automation (Ansible, scripts, etc.)
- total_operational_tasks
- Total operational tasks including manual ones
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I count how often a task runs, or just whether it's automated?
This calculator counts distinct task types, treating each as binary (automated or not) regardless of frequency — a rarely-run but automated disaster-recovery task counts the same as a frequently-run automated deployment. Weighting by frequency or risk is a reasonable variation if manual toil hours matter more than breadth.
What counts as 'automated' if the playbook still needs manual approval?
Most teams still count a task as automated if a human clicks 'run' or approves a pipeline stage — the distinction that matters here is whether the actual execution steps are codified versus done by hand via SSH/console.
What's a good coverage target?
There's no universal number, but teams operating at scale typically aim for 80%+ coverage of routine operational tasks, while accepting that some rare, high-risk, or highly variable tasks may remain intentionally manual.
How do I find my total operational task count?
Audit runbooks, on-call tickets, and change requests over a recent period (e.g. a quarter) to enumerate distinct recurring task types, then cross-reference against your Ansible role/playbook inventory to count how many are covered.
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