A monthly report always follows the same five steps. Which design fits?
Why D is the answer
A fixed workflow
Known steps need no planning loop, which adds cost and risk.
In detail
- Known steps need no planning loop.
- Simple solutions are easier to test.
Use case
An illustrative scenario, not a real incident.
A monthly report always has the same five steps, so a planning loop would add cost and risk.
See it in different ways
flowchart TD
A{"Are the steps known in advance?"} -->|Yes| B["Fixed workflow"]
A -->|No| C{"Can a wrong step be undone?"}
C -->|Yes| D["Agent"]
C -->|No| E["Agent with human approval"]stateDiagram-v2 [*] --> StepsKnown StepsKnown --> Workflow: yes StepsKnown --> Agent: no Agent --> Supervisor: distinct specialists Supervisor --> [*] Workflow --> [*]
flowchart LR S0["Collect"] --> S1["Clean"] --> S2["Calculate"] --> S3["Format"] --> S4["Send"]
Key point: Known steps suit a fixed workflow.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. A multi-agent team with one planner and one critic
- That adds agents for no reason.
- B. An autonomous agent with write access to all systems
- That adds risk for no reason.
- C. An agent that plans a new route on each run
- Planning each run adds cost and variation.