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RPA vs. Workflow: It’s Not Either/or… It’s Both

Both workflow and robotic process automation (RPA) have an important place, albeit a very different one. It’s not always easy to know which to use and when. The hype around RPA could lead you to believe that RPA is the best choice for everything from order management to oven cleaning. But before you get out the oven cleaner, let’s dig a little deeper. 

Typically, we recommend using workflow for state-managed processes that are performed at a high scale and are mission-critical to the business. RPA is often best for repetitive human tasks. There’s also a grey area where you may start with RPA for a quick win — with the goal of moving to workflow to take advantage of its flexibility and robustness. The matrix below can help you frame the question.
RPA vs. Workflow

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RPA vs. BPA: Which approach to automation should you use?

When talking about digital transformation and modernising businesses processes, the discussion naturally leads to automation. Automation increases business efficiency, which can lead to improvements in productivity, reliability, availability, and business performance.

According to Gartner, organisations will be investing in more hyperautomation initiatives in 2022 in order to increase efficiency and to deliver a better digital experience to their customers. These initiatives will include both business process automation (BPA) and robotic process automation (RPA).

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The Present and Future of RPA for Devs

We've touched on what goes into building a good RPA flow, so let's pull back a bit and look at the technology as a whole. Again, we're going to be tackling this from a developer's point of view, and again, we're going to rely on our friends from UiPath's dev team to help out.

(By the way, this is going to be a useful, but higher-level look at RPA. If you're looking for more of a tutorial, check out our Refcard Getting Started With Robotic Process Automation.)

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RPA and Automated Testing (Test Automation)

The Relationship Between Automated Testing and RPA

Automated testing is a process of transforming a human-driven test system into machine execution. RPA is developed from automated testing, similar to automated testing, and there is a lot of overlap between the two. For example, they all drive screens, keyboards, mice, etc., and have similar technical architectures. However, RPA is different from automated testing, and there are many differences between the two:

  • Different Goals

The goal of automated testing is to shorten test execution time through automation. The goal of RPA is to reduce manual input through automation, thereby saving human resources and freeing personnel from repetitive and low-value-added work.

  • Different Technical Methods

Automated testing supports limited software environments. For example, Selenium can only support Web applications, while RPA supports multiple software environments.

  • Different Handling of Errors

Automated test scripts only need to record the error message when the operating application is abnormal, and then take a screenshot. The RPA script pays more attention to the processing of abnormal errors and performs certain processing for all possible abnormal situations in the process to ensure that it can be executed in accordance with the predetermined process. Compared with automated testing, RPA adds more checkpoints to ensure correct process execution.

  • The Frequency of Script Maintenance Is Different

Automated testing requires frequent maintenance of the script. For example, after the application under test is updated, the automated test script also needs to be updated accordingly, and the modification is relatively frequent. RPA scripts are applied to mature systems. Once the build is completed and runs stably, no modification is made as much as possible, so the modification frequency is relatively low.

  • Different Number of Applications Under Test

Automated testing mainly executes scripts for a tested application. When RPA executes a complete process, it usually spans multiple applications. For example, it is necessary to operate web applications and Windows native applications to complete the process at the same time.

  • Different Recognition Objects

In automated testing, the automation technology is mainly object recognition. Direct manipulation of elements through objects usually avoids the use of image recognition, because the script of image recognition is not easy to maintain. Because RPA has to span multiple types of applications, object recognition sometimes cannot work on all applications, and it is generally not modified after deployment, so there are more opportunities for image recognition.

  • Different Roles

Automated testing acts as a virtual helper, and RPA acts as a virtual labor force.

  • Different Requirements for Developers

Developers of automated testing need to have the knowledge required to write, create, and test scripts, while RPA is wizard-driven, and many RPA system platforms do not require developers to have programming knowledge.

  • Different Users

The users of RPA automation testing are limited to technical users, while RPA can be fully used by all stakeholders.

Misunderstandings About RPA:

1. Only Programming Skills Are Required to Use RPA Software

This is not true. To use an RPA tool, you also need to understand how it works on the front end and how to automate it.

2. RPA Software Does Not Require Human Supervision

This is an illusion, because humans need to program RPA robots to provide tasks for automation and manage them.

3. Only Large Companies Have the Ability to Deploy RPA

Small and medium-sized organizations can deploy RPA to achieve business automation. However, the initial cost will be high, but the cost can be recovered in 2 to 3 years (or less).

4. RPA Is Only Suitable for Industries That Rely Heavily on Software

RPA can be used to automate production bills, invoices, telephone services, etc. These bills, invoices, telephone services, etc. are used in various industries, regardless of their dependence on software.

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Robotic Process Automation (RPA): Choose Your Process Wisely

Robotic Process Automation (RPA): Choose Your Process Wisely

The word "Process" within Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is very vital and utmost care should be taken and we should choose our process wisely. The right selection of the same determines the make or break of successful RPA implementation. The observation is RPA projects don't meet the Return Of Investment (ROI) expectations only due to the wrong choice in selection of the process.

With so much hype around RPA the customers or business leaders with limited awareness of RPA often end up selecting wrong one's as part of their debut RPA implementation. The wrong choice of process doesn't yield them the expected ROI leaving them dejected. Looking at their lower ROI even other Business Leaders tend to loose the confidence in RPA implementation.

Choosing process wisely what does that mean. Let's first understand your key purpose or objective while doing RPA implementation and what is that you as a Business Leader want to achieve.

(a) Are you trying to introduce RPA only to reduce the employee head count?

(b) Are you looking forward to simplify or automate the process to increase productivity?

(c) Are you looking forward to automate only the complex process?

Before we can address these questions let us be clear in understanding what contributes in wrong selection of RPA process.

(a) If your process logic or business rules they keep on changing often with increasing regularity then such process does not fit to be a good candidate in RPA process selection. New business rules means re-configuration each time the business rules or logic changes.

(b) If your process has dependency on government or regulatory changes which do keep changing often then such process too won't yield the optimum ROI as far as RPA implementation goes.

(c) If your process has low volume of data or if your process selected is one that runs just once in a given year (E.g. Annual Appraisal of Employees) such process don't give the best ROI results or equate in man hours saving.

Before you get into the heart of the process understanding it would be ideal if we first do an Initial Process Assessment and determine which process fits the best with the above few pointers in mind.

To sum it up - Choose your process for robotic process automation wisely - Those process that are rule based, stable, having high volume data and where business rules don't change often.

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Testing Robin, the RPA Programming Language Using Itself

Software testing in most software houses involves testing web/mobile apps, on-premise, in the cloud or hybrid installations, desktop apps, embedded software/hardware platforms and the like. What about testing a programming language though? How do you approach such a task?

Of course, given the fact there are many popular, tried-and-tested languages out there, there are a plethora of possible approaches but we will attempt to follow a different one (approach) and provide an RPA domain-specific example.

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8 Important Criteria to Follow Before Selecting the Right RPA Tool

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the technology that allows businesses to configure computer software or a "robot" to emulate and integrate the actions of a human interacting within digital systems to execute a business process. RPA robots utilize the user interface to capture data and manipulate applications mimicking human actions. They interpret, trigger responses and communicate with other systems in order to perform on a vast variety of repetitive and mundane tasks. What acts in the favor of an RPA software is that unlike humans, robots never sleep, make zero mistakes and costs a lot less than an employee.

According to Gartner, RPA is the fastest-growing segment in the worldwide enterprise software market. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2020 the RPA services are going to be valued at $5.98 billion.

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All You Need to Know About Building Your RPA CoE

When we think of automation, we think of deploying bots to make a company’s vision come true, and empower them in increasing overall business value. When it comes to RPA in banks or insurance companies, it is far more effective to deploy a software bot that performs repetitive tasks, at scale, round the clock with near-perfect accuracy. Scores of enterprises see RPA as the key to assist them in resolving challenges associated with cost and operational scalability.

To reach this objective effectively, we recommend and assist clients towards building an RPA Centre of Excellence (CoE), which helps in embedding automation effectively across the organization and dispense knowledge base as well as resources for future deployments.