Workflow for Planning a Robot

Don't skip the critical step of planning and designing your automation. Planning helps ensure that your automation achieves your business goals, and it can reduce or eliminate the need for reworking.

Previous workflow: Complete Prerequisites.

Identify the Problem

Your first step in planning a robot is familiarizing yourself with the business process that it will address, including the problems that the business process solves.

Task	More information
Identify a business process that is impacting your business	How you define a business impact is up to you. For example, the impact could be one or more of the following: Inefficiencies. Reduced effectiveness. Limited or no oversight and observability. Lack of continuous improvement.
Identify the stakeholders	Identify the stakeholders for the business process, including: The people who complete any steps in the current process and anyone in the organization who has an interest in the process. Anyone who is a stakeholder for the automation work.
Review the current business process and the problem that it addresses	Gather information about the business process that is impacting your organization. If possible, meet with the stakeholders to collect information about the current state of the business process and the problem that the process addresses. Focus on the current situation rather than on opportunities for improvement or on implementation details. The deep knowledge that you gain will help you plan the right solution.
Assess the need to redesign the business process	Determine whether the process is working for your organization: Process that isn't working Some business processes are inherently flawed. For example, if your current process generates invalid orders, automation doesn't make sense. Generating invalid orders more efficiently is not a win. Instead, redesign the process before automating it. Process that is working Some business processes are perfect, but most have room for improvement. How do you know whether to rethink the process or automate it as-is? After all, automating a bad process is generally a bad idea. Here's what Oracle recommends: If the business process that you're currently using is working, your can benefit from automating it today. The automation doesn't change or improve the business process, but you gain immediate value from the automation. For example: The business process is now automated, with potential for immediate gains in efficiency and effectiveness. You gain insight into how the business process is working, so you can start identifying the areas to improve. Note: Automating an inefficient process might seem unproductive. But, consider the cost of rethinking a business process. You could spend years assessing and evaluating the process and reaching consensus with all stakeholders. That's years of working without automation. Instead, Oracle recommends automating today, and making tactical improvements in the future using the insight that you gain.

Understand the Applications

Familiarize yourself with the applications that you're automating and their APIs, if applicable.

Task	More information
Understand the applications	Familiarize yourself with the applications that you're automating. For example, while interviewing users, you might ask for demos of the business process that you'll automate.
Determine whether the applications have APIs	Determine whether an application has APIs so you can understand your options for automation: If an application doesn't have APIs, you can still automate it using robots. If an application has APIs, you can automate it using integrations, too.
If the applications have APIs, familiarize yourself with them	Familiarize yourself with the application's APIs by reviewing their documentation. This knowledge helps you determine the right automation for a given task. For example, if APIs are available for the task that you want to automate, you can consider designing an integration for the automation.

Task

More information

Understand the applications

Familiarize yourself with the applications that you're automating. For example, while interviewing users, you might ask for demos of the business process that you'll automate.

Determine whether the applications have APIs

Determine whether an application has APIs so you can understand your options for automation:

If an application doesn't have APIs, you can still automate it using robots.
If an application has APIs, you can automate it using integrations, too.

If the applications have APIs, familiarize yourself with them

Familiarize yourself with the application's APIs by reviewing their documentation. This knowledge helps you determine the right automation for a given task.

For example, if APIs are available for the task that you want to automate, you can consider designing an integration for the automation.

Define the Requirements

After collecting information about the use cases for your automation, define and prioritize your requirements.

Task	More information
Identify your requirements	Using the use cases that you collected, write the requirements for your automation solution. Be as specific as you prefer, and work in the format that your team usually uses. For example, you might write a product requirement document, or you might create one or more tickets in your issue tracking software.
If needed, prioritize the requirements	Determine the timeline for work, the scope of the work, and the availability of resources. Next, determine whether you can deliver all requirements in the initial delivery of the automation. If you need to split the work into multiple sprints, phases, or releases, work with your stakeholders to prioritize the requirements.
Plan your implementation and work	Determine how you will implement your requirements. For example: Identify the number of integrations and robots to design and build. See When to Create Robots Versus Integrations. Specify the actions that the integrations and robots will take. Determine how many environments you must set up, and create system requirements for them. Create a schedule for the work.

Task

More information

Identify your requirements

Using the use cases that you collected, write the requirements for your automation solution.

Be as specific as you prefer, and work in the format that your team usually uses. For example, you might write a product requirement document, or you might create one or more tickets in your issue tracking software.

If needed, prioritize the requirements

Determine the timeline for work, the scope of the work, and the availability of resources.

Next, determine whether you can deliver all requirements in the initial delivery of the automation.

If you need to split the work into multiple sprints, phases, or releases, work with your stakeholders to prioritize the requirements.

Plan your implementation and work

Determine how you will implement your requirements. For example:

Identify the number of integrations and robots to design and build.

See When to Create Robots Versus Integrations.
Specify the actions that the integrations and robots will take.
Determine how many environments you must set up, and create system requirements for them.
Create a schedule for the work.

Next workflow: Workflow for Building a Robot.