Tips for writing better BOT

BOT Cycle

• Requirement gathering - Analysis, feasibility, automation scope
• Design - To be Process, Technical, solution document
• Scripting - convert process into script
• Testing - check the accuracy of script
• Script review
• KT to support team - create user guide for operation team
• Deployment
• Maintainance - Script versioning, Monitoring and fixing bug

RPA developer deals with operation, security and end user.
BOT perform low-level tasks freeing up Human Resources for more demanding jobs.

Factor experienced while creating BOT in WinAutomation or Automation Anywhere

Requirement

- Is the Process automatable

- If not, What are steps can automate? to make it faster
- Check the As-is process
- Check the in Scope and out of scope of project
- Do quick PoC to check compatibility

Design

- Analysis the Risk Matrix (No of transaction, No of FTE)
- Make proper design of BOT for modification or scaling
- Design user-friendly TO BE PLAN
- Present the TO BE PROCESS to Operation Team

Coding (Adjust or fit the script 100% accuracy)

- Add Authentication for starting of BOT.The bot must run by the authenticated user only.
- Clean up before starting BOT
- Check Login before start working
- Trim and validate data before pass it to BOT
- Data security (Encryption) is also important
- Make the reusable Function/framework/bot
- keep your BOT simple and focused and make a proper region or Comment
- Release the resources if not required
- Find the multiple ways to solve a problem and then choose the best plan
- BOT process must be secure (Authenticated user) and compliance
- Make Milestone log
- Logs and Exception handling and Error notification is important

- Looping the action ( probability 100%)
- Used jQuery to find object
- case-insensitive data
- Use regular expression
- Use  dynamic delay/wait for control
- Have scalability of bot
- create reusable bots
- identify time-consuming steps
- identify the scope of automation through  feasibility study/poc
- focus on FTE
- parallel workflow help to speed up things
- RPA tool should work with all kind of platform.
- transaction log on which bot run
- pop-up handle
- clean up the old session before starting new
- BoT logic should be less depend upon user data.
- input - process- output (correct/incorrect)

- Avoid use of OCR, IR and Keystroke


Testing

- Testing BOT properly. We can't skip this step after making modification in BOT
- Performance of website could vary on different environment (DEV, UAT, PROD) due data size, network or etc.

Approval/signoff for Deployment

- Analysis the Risk Matrix (No of transaction, No of success and fail ratio, No of FTE )

Maintenance

- Monitor and maintenance of BOT
- Generate Operational and Audit-related report

Risk handling

- What if BOT fail?
- How much time to rectify the issue?
- Check the loss of company due to BOT fail
- Set up Disaster recovery

Reusable component

- BOT Framework
- Error handling mail
- log creation
- BOT authentication
- Email script
- reusable macro/Excel formula
- Clean up before and after BOT run


Automation anywhere can not handle long term complex process because this tool is still have bugs and currently they have latest AA 11 version. I hope they have resolved some the issue from this product

- AA player get hanged
- session timeout
-Memory consumption issue
-scheduler not trigger

- It does not have feature to fetch data from unstructure PDF table
- It does not work properly with Flex technology


https://exceljet.net/blog/29-ways-to-save-time-with-excel-formulas