RPA Solution Architect's Handbook: Design modern and custom RPA solutions for digital innovation 1803249609, 9781803249605

Table of contents :
Cover
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Contributors
About the reviewers
Table of Contents
Preface
Part 1:Role of a Solution Architect
Chapter 1: Why Do We Need a Solution Architect?
Understanding the importance of the SA role
Bridging the gap
Being a guardian angel, influencer, and enforcer
SAs as solution owners
SAs and the multiple hats they wear
Being a consultant
Being a business analyst
Being an SA
Being a developer
Being a delivery facilitator
Summary
Questions
Chapter 2: Case Study of a Banking Client
Introducing the scenario
Synopsis of the case study
Engagement details
Vision and strategy
Finding RPA opportunities
Learning more about the team structure
T-shirt sizing – sizing the project
Summary
Questions
Chapter 3: Extracurricular Activities
Contribution to presales activities
Orals
Building a talent pool
Coaching and mentoring
Contributing to a COE
Guide for best practices
Summary
Questions
Part 2:Being Techno/Functional
Chapter 4: Studying the Lay of the Land
Setting up the scenario
The project management team
Hybrid model
The information security team
Industry-based policies
Region-based regulations and policies
Organizational policies
The infrastructure team
One size doesn’t fit all
The networking and security team
The production support team
Team structure
Summary
Questions
Chapter 5: Designing Framework for Consistency and Resiliency
What is a framework, and why is it essential in RPA projects?
Design principles
Modular design
Multi-bot design
Memory management
Manual override
Development standards
Security standards
Bot operating model
Bot capacity planning
Summary
Questions
Chapter 6: Need for Documentation and Working with SIT/UAT Scripts
Project plan
Initiation
Planning
Analysis
Design
Development
Implementation
Post-implementation
Process design document
The AS-IS and TO-BE process
Defining the in-scope and out-of-scope
Business exception handling
System exception handling
Nonfunctional requirements
Reporting requirements
Solution design document
Solution approach
Architecture diagram
Project details
Assets or variables
Code structure and modules
Requirement traceability matrix
System integration testing (SIT) and user acceptance testing (UAT)
Runbook
Summary
Questions
Chapter 7: RPA Development Phases
POC
Wireframing
Guiding the team
Daily checkpoints
Integration testing
Summary
Questions
Chapter 8: Customer Obsession in the RPA Journey
A demonstration and early feedback
Planning the demo
Keeping the client engaged
An SA as an influencer
UAT
The wow factor
Summary
Questions
Part 3: Tool Agnostic Approach
Chapter 9: Intelligent Automation
What is IA?
Understanding the difference between RPA and IA
Components of IA
AI and ML
OCR and Intelligent OCR
Computer vision
NLP
Design considerations for IA
Chatbots
Summary
Questions
Chapter 10: Hyperautomation: The Future of RPA
What is hyperautomation?
Integration platform as a service (iPaaS)
Advanced analytics
When to consider hyper-automation
Is hyperautomation the future of automation?
Summary
Questions
Chapter 11: Reusable Components
What are reusable components?
Benefits of reusable components
Faster, better, and cheaper development
Use cases
Use case 1
Use case 2
Building a reusable component library
Summary
Questions
Chapter 12: RPA as a Service (RPAaaS)
RPAaaS – an abstraction of SaaS
Understanding what RPAaaS is
RPAaaS architecture
RPAaaS
Cloud deployment
On-premises implementation
BYOP
Summary
Questions
Chapter 13: Finding the Best Solution
Research
Issues and challenges while doing research
Putting your findings to the test
Socializing your solution
Securing approvals
Summary
Questions
Part 4:Best Practices
Chapter 14: Design Best Practices
Modular design
Module pattern
Module patterns in the software industry
Module patterns in RPA
Breadcrumbs
What are breadcrumbs in software development?
Why are breadcrumbs important in modern-day development standards?
Types of breadcrumbs
Best practices for implementing breadcrumbs
Use of breadcrumbs in RPA
Decoupling
Decoupling in software development
Benefits of decoupling
Best practices for decoupling
Decoupling in RPA
Garbage collection
What is garbage collection?
Challenges due to mishandling garbage collection
Best practices for handling garbage collection in RPA and automation
Exception handling
Importance of exception handling
Challenges faced due to not handling exceptions
Exception handling in RPA and automation
Best practices for exception handling in RPA and automation
Summary
Questions
Chapter 15: Data, Security, and Logs
Cooked and synthetic data
Understanding the differences between application and custom logs
Credentials
RBAC implementation
How RBAC can be applied in RPA and automation
Effective governance
Why is governance important in RPA and automation?
Auditing
Why is auditing important in RPA and automation?
Summary
Questions
Chapter 16: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
STP
Setting up STP KPIs
Using exception metrics in KPIs
What are exceptions in RPA?
Business exceptions
System exceptions
Impact of exceptions on business processes
Using exceptions in KPIs
Building exception metrics in RPA
Accuracy
Why is accuracy important for RPA?
How to measure accuracy in RPA
How to use accuracy as a metric and a KPI
Why efficiency is important for RPA
How to measure efficiency in RPA
How to use efficiency as a metric and KPI
Accuracy and efficiency as complementary metrics
Other metrics and KPIs for RPA
BHT
Measuring utilization of underlining bot hardware
Reliability metrics
Mean Time to Failure (MTTF)
Mean Time between Failures (MTBF)
Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)
Summary
Questions
Chapter 17: Reporting, Analytics, Efficiency, and Efficacy
CBA and ROI
Queue reporting
Keeping the history
Data retention
Analytics
Alerts and notification
Resilience and discovering the unknowns in RPA projects
Building a resilient RPA solution
Discovering the unknowns
Monitoring the health
Updates and upgrades
Change management – enabling seamless and effective transitions
Summary
Questions
Epilogue
Index
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