Understanding the stages of an RPA journey
Analyzing the processes and correctly categorizing them can result in obtaining quick wins in RPA projects; however, not all functions are quick wins. To achieve long-term effects from these projects, the organization must have the proper mindset, proper resources, and reasonable goals to get the best outcome. Hence, every RPA project requires the involvement of multiple essential resources during different stages of the journey.
Every RPA project needs to go through six stages during its automation journey. These stages are depicted in the following diagram:
Figure 1.5 – RPA journey
The following sections describe each stage in more detail.
Discovery
Discovery is the initial phase of any RPA project. This phase's primary goal is to spread the word about automation within the organization and find the most suitable process candidates for automation. There are two approaches to perform discovery, as follows:
- The organization already knows the process that requires automation.
- Discover all possible candidate processes for automation.
If the organization does know the process that requires automation, the scope of the discovery phase will be limited to the already identified processes. Critical resources in the RPA team, such as BAs and RPA solution architects, can sit together with the business team to understand the process in detail. The RPA experts and the business teams conduct multiple requirement-gathering sessions to capture all the information needed to understand the process. The teams' tasks include process assessment and detailed mapping of the as-is process. The BAs draw the as-is process in detail, explaining all the subprocesses involved. The process map helps to discover standardization requirements and the steps that require automation. The RPA team documents all the information and presents two standard documents, as outlined here:
- Process definition document (PDD): This contains details about the as-is process and how it is standardized and automated.
- Solution design document (SDD): This contains all the technical details of the automated solution.
However, if the organization does not have a specific process that requires automation, it requires a thorough analysis of all the available functions to identify possible candidates. In such scenarios, the RPA experts such as BAs and solution architects sit together with all the critical business people to understand the existing processes and identify suitable automation opportunities. The team follows the same steps as those explained previously to carry out the assessment. All the analyzed processes are documented and put into the assessment matrix discussed in the previous section. Once the assessment matrix is updated, the most important and the most suitable business processes are selected based on different factors such as cost, ROI, and so on. The rest of the functions are kept in the automation pipeline to keep track of the identified processes that require automation over the next couple of months. All these processes go through some level of standardization and governance procedures to improve the process before automating.
Build
Development of the automation opportunities identified in the discovery phase takes place in the build phase. There are two different approaches to carry out the development of the automation project, as outlined here:
- Center of Excellence (CoE)-driven: The core development team consists of RPA experts such as RPA solution architects, RPA developers, and experienced BAs who carry out discovering and developing automation solutions. The RPA team works with the business users throughout the automation journey to ensure successful delivery.
- Democratized approach: With this approach, business users carry out the development by themselves. Not all business users may have technical experience, hence they are enabled to perform actions using tools that do not require specialized or programming knowledge.
Once development is complete, all the automation solutions will undergo rigorous testing to ensure efficiency, accuracy, reliability, and that coding meets development standards and best practices.
Manage
The automation solutions that are built are required to be deployed and updated from time to time. It is vital to keep track of each deployment and update carried out for the project for many reasons, such as the following:
- Keeping track of the changes carried out
- Comparing different versions when needed for bug fixing
- Rolling back to previous versions in an emergency
- Monitoring the usage of automation solutions created
- Accessing management of the solutions
Run
The run stage is crucial in every automation project. Robots execute the solutions deployed in this stage. The execution and allocation of robots are configured based on organizational requirements. Depending on the organization's needs, the robots execute the processes developed in the user's machine or virtual environments without human intervention.
Engage
Every business process includes steps that require decision-making by the users who perform it. Some of these decisions are rule-based, but some require expertise and user experience (UX). In such scenarios, the robot and the user must work together to perform certain steps while the robot takes care of the most complex activities. This concept is called "human in the loop", whereby robots assign tasks for the user, and once the user completes these, the robot takes over control of the rest of the activities.
Measure
Introducing RPA makes an impact within the organization. The effect created requires measurement to understand how to scale RPA initiatives. These measures provide insights into the automation outcomes and the impact made to align the RPA strategy to achieve organizational goals.
Similar to any software development project, RPA projects also have a life cycle. Every RPA project must go through a mandatory set of steps during its life cycle to ensure efficient and worthy delivery. Each stage of the life cycle requires different resources. The following section explains the resources needed during an RPA project and the responsibilities of each resource.