Organizations constantly seek for means of improving their business processes to remain competitive. Recently, much effort has been devoted to business process automation (BPA) projects. However, it has been unclear how these projects differ from traditional business process management (BPM) projects and which critical success factors (CSFs) play a crucial role. This study comparatively assesses how CSFs change for BPA with respect to BPM. Using a survey sample of 139 BPM and BPA experts, the study shows that top management support as a CSF warrants attention for BPM than BPA, while the importance of choosing project methodology significantly differs for BPM and BPA. The comparison between lightweight and heavyweight BPA types indicates that the top management support is relatively less critical for lightweight BPA. The explorative and fsQCA analyses provide insights about the patterns for industries with different IT strategic roles, expert perspectives, and among CSFs. Overall, the findings may help project managers assess the role of key CSFs better based on project focus.