# Maturity ladder

> In the Rollo Academy Copilot track, the three stages a playbook moves through, ad hoc, documented and semi-automated, where the right stage depends on how often you do the job.

**Category:** Copilot

**The maturity ladder helps you judge how far a playbook needs to go.** It is a concept from the Rollo Academy track, not a Microsoft feature. At **stage one, ad hoc**, you use the right features but rebuild the sequence from memory each time, which is fine for a quarterly job. At stage two, documented, the sequence and its human checkpoints are written down where a colleague can find them. At stage three, semi-automated, parts run on a [trigger](/glossary#trigger) in [Copilot Studio](/glossary#copilot-studio) while the judgment steps stay human.

**Stage two is the right stage for almost anything you do weekly or monthly.** Very few playbooks need stage three, and pushing one there before it has proven itself mostly swaps "remembering the steps" for "debugging an automation". Once any step runs on a schedule, keep an eye on Copilot Credits too.

## At work

A team runs its inbox-to-actions playbook at stage two for a few months, then lets a scheduled flow run only the morning thread summary, while each person still decides what is actionable.

## Often confused with

Automating everything. The top of the ladder is not the goal: stage three automates only the mechanical steps, and most playbooks rightly stay at stage two.

## Related terms

- Playbook
- Human checkpoint
- Trigger
- Agent flow

## See it in a lesson

[Putting it together: Copilot playbooks](/en/learn/copilot/advanced/copilot-playbooks)

## Further reading

- [What is Copilot Studio? (Microsoft Learn)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/fundamentals-what-is-copilot-studio): Where to start when a playbook step needs a trigger or automation.
- [Agent flows overview (Microsoft Learn)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/flows-overview): How triggers and actions fit together once part of a playbook runs on its own.

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Last updated: 14/10/2026  
Source: Rollo Academy glossary