The Dual-Format Concept

BFF’s Write Once, Assign Anywhere philosophy means a Work Instruction is one document that can serve two audiences:

  • Prose — human-readable narrative instructions
  • Structured — machine-readable steps for AI agents

You do not create two separate Work Instructions. One controlled document holds both — write the procedure once, and it works for human and AI team members alike.

How Dual-Format Works

Every Work Instruction has a Mode — Prose or Structured — set in the editor:

  • A Prose Work Instruction is free-form text for humans.
  • A Structured Work Instruction adds numbered Steps on top of the content — each with an Action, optional Tool, expected input/output, estimated duration, and Decision Point.

When a human opens a structured Work Instruction, they read the content and the steps in plain language. When an AI agent pulls it via the API, it receives the structured step data it can execute programmatically.

Setting Up a Dual-Format WI

  1. Navigate to Work Instructions in the sidebar and create a new Work Instruction
  2. Give it a Title (e.g., “Customer Onboarding Steps”)
  3. Set the Mode toggle to Structured
  4. Write the steps — click ”+ Add Step” for each, filling in the action, tool, and any decision points
  5. Save, then move it through review and publish (see Document Roles and Lifecycle)
  6. Link it to tasks via Linked Content — BFF serves the right representation to whoever (or whatever) picks the task up

Tip: If you started in Prose mode, you can switch the same document to Structured mode later and add steps — no need to duplicate anything.

Why This Matters

The single-document model enables true human↔AI interoperability:

  • Hot Swapping — reassign a task from a human to an AI agent, and the AI already has executable instructions
  • Shift coverage — agents can cover overnight shifts using the same procedure your humans follow by day
  • Consistency — there’s exactly one source of truth, so humans and AI can never drift apart
  • One change, one cascade — update the document once and everyone is notified together

The Change Impact Connection

Work Instructions are controlled documents: edits to a published WI return it to Draft, and the revision goes back through review. When the new version is published, Change Impact Analysis walks the document link graph and alerts each linked document’s Owner, notifies assignees of linked tasks, flags stale Required Reading acknowledgements, and sends webhook notifications to AI agents — all from the one document.

This is the core of BFF’s Liquid Workforce. Write a procedure once. Today, a human executes it. Tomorrow, an AI takes over — same document, same knowledge, different representation.