>The people who know the domain should be able to maintain (and really, create) any automation of that domain themselves.
This is a recipe for disaster 100% of the time. One needs to know both the domain and software to change software in the domain. People who 'know the domain' but not software, when given the tools to modify software within the domain inevitably create an unmaintainable rats nest of more difficult to change rules, almost invariably in some proprietary WYSYWIG tool that creates more problems than it solves.
This is a recipe for disaster 100% of the time. One needs to know both the domain and software to change software in the domain. People who 'know the domain' but not software, when given the tools to modify software within the domain inevitably create an unmaintainable rats nest of more difficult to change rules, almost invariably in some proprietary WYSYWIG tool that creates more problems than it solves.