Can you generate an RPA Bot?

Sounds easy, I would like an RPA bot please?

That is too short a prompt, please answer some guided questions.

• What would you like the RPA bot to do?
• How should the RPA bot handle errors?
• What happens if the system that the RPA bot is using does not respond?
• What happens if there is a new pop-up that has not been seen before?
• How does the RPA bot get user credentials for accessing the target systems?
• What audit trails are required and what level of data values should they show?

OK, let’s consider the RPA bot requirement more fully.

The first RPA bot for a business?

As with any change it is people, process and technology.

The tasks that the RPA bot is to perform need to be defined.

The change that will have on the workload of the people currently performing the activity needs to be understood.

Clarity on how people will pass requests to the RPA bot, work with the outcome from the automation and how errors will be processed (i.e. Human in the loop).

The technology requirements for the RPA bot development and its production execution.

How will the automated process operated by the RPA bot be tested for both good and error scenarios?

The monitoring, support and enhancement tasks that need to be resourced.

Lastly but certainly not least, the finance in terms of the ROI for the change needs planning, monitoring and verifying.

Been Done before?

Even if it is the first RPA bot for this business, can the skills and experience of consultants who have done the automation before, be leveraged to reduce the learning curve?

Is the RPA bot being used to automate a process that other businesses have already automated?

Even if the scope of the specific process is unusual has the RPA bot technology been used with the software systems before?

Where it has been used before, the Logon, Logoff and menu navigation activities will probably exist as templates which can be cloned to save development effort.

The more similar the RPA bot automation requirement is to previous automations, the lower the risk and the more likely that the ROI for the project will be achieved.

Capture the process

For scenarios where a process that is to be automated is currently performed by people, the potential to capture details about the process exists.

Yes, there are some very sophisticated process mining tools available that can record and analyse workload performed by groups of people to help identify suitable scope for an RPA bot automation. Such tools are expensive and need a lot of skill to use, but they can deliver great value for enterprise scale businesses.

For mid-market organisations, managers and experienced team members typically know the processes well. They can easily describe and perform the processes.

Most RPA bot software comes with “Recording” tools that can capture the activities performed by an individual. This can be used to generate the “Happy Path” aspects for an RPA bot automation.

Such generated code, is likely to require work to make it more “General”, enable it to handle “Errors” and any alterations to the structure when the code is to handle the requests for work differently from an individual (e.g. working with queues of requests).

Why not use a Template?

When there are common aspects of processes, it is usual to adopt a template approach.

Just as there are common software applications found in particular industries, there are some common RPA templates available.

As an example, UiPath as a leading RPA bot technology, has a marketplace with over 2,000 templates available.

Templates can save development effort and embody some lessons learnt so that good practice can be followed for error handling, audit trail usage, etc.

For scenarios that do not exactly match an existing templates, parts from a combination of templates can be assembled to reduce development effort.

Templates for the automation are one aspect of an implementation, templates can also be considered for testing of an automation. These templates can cover typical test scenarios and in some cases provide sample test data.

It is the knowledge gained from these templates, their usage and their maintenance, which has led to the emergence of “Self Healing” automations. The concept is that when an issue is encountered, it is likely to be resolved by adopting one of a limited number of “Fix” templates.

The challenge for most businesses is whether they feel confident to allow an automation to “Fix” itself by changing its activity to a combination that has not gone through a testing cycle.

Generate simple automation!

Some application vendors such as ServiceNow provide the ability to generate an RPA bot automation for simple tasks.

Claude AI can generate RPA bot code based on prompts. The outcome can be in a range of technologies from Python to UiPath.

Of course, the generation process will continue to improve and be able to deliver better quality results that cover more complex scenarios.

There is likely to be specific category for such generations which is the “Re-generation” of an existing RPA bot automation into another technology. For example, from Blue Prism to UiPath or to Power Automate.

Such generation capability will dramatically reduce the costs to switch between technology vendors. The reduced lock-in, will probably drive annual subscriptions to be lower.

There are some specialist providers of “Switching” services at present, but the “Re-Generation” capability could rapidly impact the market.

What about RPA bot as a service

Taking the concept of templates and done before, one stage further, the idea of an RPA bot as a Service is inevitable.

There are some providers of RPA as a Service (RPAaaS) that operate in the market already.

The challenges for such providers are not in the commonality of the process but the need for appropriate isolation of the activity with the specific network configuration for the RPA bot to perform work without compromising the essential security which each business requires.

This is not so much about generating an RPA bot, as using one that has already been prepared and is available “Off the shelf”.