Day to day, you check individual pieces of work. Once in a while, you need to step back and look at the whole thing. Is this working? What should change?
ISO calls that management review.
Management review in ISO
ISO asks top management to review the quality management system at planned intervals. Inputs include things like:
- results of audits
- performance against objectives
- customer feedback
- problems and corrective actions
- changes that might affect the system
Outputs are decisions: what to improve, what to change, what resources are needed.
The bot version
For a bot or a team of bots, a review might be monthly, or after a big project. The owner looks at:
| Input | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| What the bots did | Records and logs |
| What went wrong | Corrections, failures, held items |
| Test results | The tester bot's run index |
| Changes made | Change log and versions |
| Cost | Usage and billing |
| What's coming | New work, new tools, new models |
Outputs:
- Changes to principles, playbooks or skills.
- Changes to who does what.
- Tools to add or remove.
- Rigor to raise or lower.
Keep it short
This doesn't need a three-hour meeting. For a small setup, half an hour with a few questions is enough:
- What did the bots get right?
- What did I have to correct more than once?
- Did any correction become a rule? Should more?
- Did anything go out that shouldn't have?
- Is any bot doing a job it shouldn't?
- What should change?
Write down the answers. That's the record of the review.
Bots can prepare it
A bot can gather the inputs: count the records, list the test runs, summarize the change log. It can draft the review notes. What it can't do is make the decisions. That's leadership. In ISO terms, top management. In bot terms, you.
Be honest: this is practice, not a feature
We haven't confirmed a built-in "management review" feature for Grok Bots. This is a habit you set up. In our review of 90 marketplace templates, 25 had scheduled routines, and they shipped turned off, for the user to switch on (good-practice.md). Our own AN Creation setup doesn't have review routines defined yet. It's on the list.
Where it differs
In a company, management review feeds into budgets, staffing and strategy. For a small set of bots, it's lighter: mostly instructions and tools. But the core is the same. Someone with authority looks at the whole system on purpose.
What this means for you
- Pick a rhythm: monthly, or after each project.
- Ask the six questions.
- Let a bot gather the inputs.
- You make the decisions, and write them down.
Bots won't step back on their own. Someone has to.