Which term best describes the practice of coordinating multiple automated tasks into a single cohesive workflow?

• A. Automation
• B. Runbook
• C. Orchestration
• D. Provisioning

Answer: (C)

Orchestration describes coordinating multiple automated tasks into a single cohesive workflow. It focuses on arranging the sequence of steps, managing dependencies between tasks, handling errors, and applying conditional logic so the whole process runs smoothly from start to finish. For example, deploying a complete application might require provisioning compute, configuring networking, deploying code, and running tests; an orchestration mechanism ensures each step happens in the right order, handles retries, and can run tasks in parallel when possible.

Automation is about making tasks automatic, which can apply to individual actions, but it doesn’t inherently cover the coordination of many tasks into a unified process. A runbook is a documented procedure outlining steps to perform a task, not a live system that coordinates multiple tasks. Provisioning refers specifically to creating and configuring resources, rather than orchestrating a multi-step workflow across components.