RPA Lifecycle – All You Need To Know About Different Stages Of Bot Development

Robotic Process Automation is no new word in today’s market. With hundreds of multi-national companies using this technology to automate their business processes, it has definitely increased the demand for RPA skilled professionals. Well, knowing this fact, definitely raises a question on “How are the bots built”. In this article on RPA Lifecycle, I will talk about the different phases of bot development.

The following topics will be covered in this article:

• What is Robotic Process Automation?
• Lifecycle of RPA
  • Discovery Phase
  • Solution Design Phase
  • Development Phase
  • UAT
  • Deployment Phase
  • Execute Bots

Before I talk about the RPA Lifecycle phases, let me tell you what is RPA?

What is Robotic Process Automation?

The Process of automating the workflows with the help of robots/software to reduce the involvement of humans is said to be Robotic Process Automation.

Over here there are mainly three terms that you need to understand: Robotic, Process and Automation. Let me explain you each of these terms one by one.

• Robotic: Entities which mimic human actions are called Robots.
• Process: Sequence of steps which lead to a meaningful activity. For example, the process of making tea or your favorite dish, etc.
• Automation: Any process which is done by a robot without human intervention.

If we summarize all the terms together then, mimicking human actions to perform a sequence of steps that lead to a meaningful activity, without any human intervention is known as Robotic Process Automation.

So, now that you know what is RPA, let us deep dive into the main topic of this article, i.e. RPA Lifecycle.

RPA Lifecycle

RPA Lifecycle has mainly 5 stages and an additional stage, which is to execute the built bot. Refer to the image below.

Discovery Phase

In this phase, the requirements of the client are analyzed by the Process Architect. Based on the requirements, given by the client, it is decided whether the process can be automated or not. If the process can be automated, then the complexity of the process is analyzed. Finally, the benefits from the automation are penned down.

After the discovery phases, the next phase which comes into the picture is the Solution Design Phase. So, let us discuss the same.

Solution Design Phase

In this phase, the solution or the steps to automate a task is designed. The Technical Architect in collaboration with the Process Architect makes a Process Definition Document(PDD) which contains the information about each and every process/step to depth.

Once all the client requirements are analyzed and the Process Definition Document is made, the next step is to decide few requirements for the project such as Budget, Time to be spent, number of people working on the project and so on.

Then, you have to create an Object Model Diagram or a Flowchart to understand the flow o process. With the help of this, you will be able to understand which step has to be automated and what are its requirements.

After you create the flowchart, you have to choose an RPA Tool to automate your task and then, you are good to get started with developing the bot.

So, the next phase is the Development Phase.

Development Phase

The Development Phase is the phase wherein the Automation Developer creates Automation Scripts in the chosen RPA Tool. The tool could be any of the enormous amounts of the tools present in the market, but, the top 3 tools in today’s market are UiPath, Blue Prism & Automation Anywhere. Also, the Automation Scripts are created by referring to the previously created Process Definition Document. Depending on the task to be automated or the kind of automation required, there may or may not be coding required; but, there are humongous amounts of scenarios where you do not need coding at all.

Now, once your bot has been developed, the next stage is to test the developed bot.

UAT(User Acceptance Tests)

In this phase of RPA lifecycle, the developed bot is tested either by the Testing team or the Development team itself. The bot is tested in the pre-production environment to test how the users can use this bot to automate a specific task. If the testing is successful, then it moves forward with the next stage, But, if the testing fails, then the bot goes back to the Development Phase where the errors found in the Testing phase are rectified and are tested again.

Once your bot is successfully tested, the next stage in the RPA Lifecycle is the Deployment Phase.

Deployment & Maintenance Phase

After developing and testing a bot, the bot is deployed into the production environment. Now, once the bot is deployed, users can use it. But, if there are any issues with the bot, then it goes back to the Dev & Testing teams to resolve the issue.

Well, these were the main phases of the RPA Lifecycle.

Now, the final stage is to execute the bot.

Execute Bots

In this stage, the bots are executed and thereafter checked to generate meaningful results. So, folks, with this, we come to an end of this article. To help you understand the flow of building a bot, you can refer to the below image:

If you wish to learn further about RPA lifecycle, then I suggest you go through the following interesting video.

Now that you have understood the RPA Lifecycle,  check out the RPA Training using UiPath & RPA Training using Automation Anywhere  by Edureka, a trusted online learning company with a network of more than 250,000 satisfied learners spread across the globe. Both, these certifications will help you get an in-depth knowledge of UiPath and Automation Anywhere respectively.

Got a question for us? Please mention it in the comments section of “RPA Lifecycle” and we will get back to you.