Skore Case Study
How to “Skore” with RPA Process Discovery, Define & Design
How to “Skore” with RPA Process Discovery, Define & Design
Many companies that embark on an automation journey soon find that the all-important RPA process discovery, definition and design phases can be rather manual, clunky and unsophisticated. There are very few really ideal solutions available to support this, at least not without ending up with a collection of different tools, but there is one such system that you’ll want to know better. Read on…
Process Management is one of the four key pillars of any RPA Governance Framework, consisting of candidate identification, process discovery, definition, solution design and pipeline management.
Once an automation candidate has been identified, there are several important considerations to ensure a successful deployment, including: defining scope, validating system environments, confirming applications, screens, access and permissions, data inputs and outputs, handoff points, exception handling, roles and responsibilities and service level requirements. Not only must these points be considered, but appropriately documented (to keystroke level) in the most time-efficient, but effective way possible.
In this article, we share how Lawrence & Wedlock solved this by utilising the digital process mapping platform from Skore (www.getskore.com) to perform this critically important phase of the automation lifecycle.
Skore (www.getskore.com) is the process mapping, analysis and management software for growing businesses. Whether you’re a business owner or advisor, Skore gives you the power to solve business problems in an engaging and collaborative way with everyone in your team.
How to “Skore” with RPA Process Discovery, Define & Design
Many companies that embark on an automation journey soon find that the all-important RPA process discovery, definition and design phases can be rather manual, clunky and unsophisticated. There are very few really ideal solutions available to support this, at least not without ending up with a collection of different tools, but there is one such system that you’ll want to know better. Read on…
Process Management is one of the four key pillars of any RPA Governance Framework, consisting of candidate identification, process discovery, definition, solution design and pipeline management.
Once an automation candidate has been identified, there are several important considerations to ensure a successful deployment, including: defining scope, validating system environments, confirming applications, screens, access and permissions, data inputs and outputs, handoff points, exception handling, roles and responsibilities and service level requirements. Not only must these points be considered, but appropriately documented (to keystroke level) in the most time-efficient, but effective way possible.
In this article, we share how Lawrence & Wedlock solved this by utilising the digital process mapping platform from Skore (www.getskore.com) to perform this critically important phase of the automation lifecycle.
The Common Challenge
The Common Challenge
It’s a familiar scene, you’ve identified a process or task that’s perfect for RPA; you know who performs (most) of the steps currently and everyone is keen to get their new bot up and running and adding value.
However, you find out there are some steps which don’t happen in any system nor very consistently, and that there are more people involved than you first thought but you aren’t entirely sure how or what they do, and those individuals are based in different locations (most likely working from home due to the pandemic lockdown). As the anointed champion of change, you’ve been tasked with getting this sorted, but how and with what?
To ensure successful, robust automations, process discovery is THE most important step and begins with understanding the “happy path” of what (should) occur most frequently, but this is the easy part. It’s the system and business exceptions that will typically take up the lion-share of development effort.
Also important are the steps which a human operator will sometimes take for granted, for example, “the system is always much slower to respond on Monday mornings during the back-up”, as these have to be considered during the design of the automated solution too. And lastly, leading with the required outcomes will keep everyone laser-focused on the automation imperatives through testing and into go-live.
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To ensure successful, robust automations, process discovery is THE most important step and begins with understanding the “happy path” of what (should) occur most frequently, but this is just the easy part.
To ensure successful, robust automations, process discovery is THE most important step and begins with understanding the “happy path” of what (should) occur most frequently, but this is just the easy part.
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“ To ensure successful, robust automations, process discovery is THE most important step and begins with understanding the “happy path” of what (should) occur most frequently, but this is just the easy part ”.
Making the switch to digital discovery can be daunting, but it needn’t be, with the right tool and approach.
When Lawrence & Wedlock implemented Skore for example, we’d been using spreadsheets, word processors and workflow packages for some time to produce process design and solution specification documents manually. However, we were never truly satisfied with this method, which always seemed at odds with our core values.
We began with a simple use case, knowing roughly the outcomes we wanted to achieve, and created our first full digital process discovery package. Where we had gaps, we spoke to the folks at Skore for guidance and options of how to use the platform and slowly defined a methodology that really worked for us and our clients.
How we solved it
How we solved it
Figure 1 shows the numerous stages and systems we used to use in the process automation discovery phase. Overall, this approach rarely took less than 2-3 working weeks to prepare, and aside from being sub-optimal for our delivery teams and difficult to cleanly coordinate all the changes, it wasn’t a particularly positive experience for our clients.
Figure 2 shows the new Skore based lifecycle for process automation discovery.
We begin with a process walkthrough call with the subject matter experts to map the end-to-end process steps. This is done live and collaboratively, captured at the speed of conversation. We then detail the individual sub-process activities and tasks and finally add keystroke (screenshot) images and descriptions. It’s at this level of detail that exceptions and actions are also added.
Whilst other technologies such as process mining definitely have their place, we still find this approach the most comprehensive and effective for the robot development work to follow and ensures the right level of engagement and collaboration with the business subject matter experts.
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Making the switch to digital discovery can be daunting, but it needn’t be, with the right tool and approach.
Making the switch to digital discovery can be daunting, but it needn’t be, with the right tool and approach.
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” Making the switch to digital discovery can be daunting, but it needn’t be, with the right tool and approach. ”
Completing the Picture
Completing the Picture
There are some very essential elements we like to capture in Skore for process steps being defined for RPA, for which we use the ‘Custom Fields’ feature:
System Exceptions – a list and description of all known possible environmental and application-based exceptions that may occur and defines what actions a robot should be programmed to perform if and when these occur. For example, if an application is non- responsive, the robot should stop, exit/log-out, wait or retry x times, and notify if still unsuccessful. Both the nature of the exception and the desired actions are captured.
Business Exceptions – a list of all known possible or anticipated process-based exceptions and what actions a robot should be programmed to perform if and when these occur. Common examples of these include transactions that are outside the scope for the automated procedures and those that require a human-in-the-loop by definition for judgement, review or decision-making purposes.
Business and Operational Service Levels – capture the desired minimum levels of service for the procedure in question, which then feed directly into the Business Impact Analysis and Business Continuity Planning that are part of the To-Be solution design
To-Be Solution Design Principles – include any requirements or opportunities to optimise, eliminate or simplify activities, but also any process imperatives and outcome objectives to guide the automated solution design
The major benefits that you could enjoy from adopting Skore for RPA Process Management are:
- Build and share process information from one convenient, digital, online location
- Platform is process and system agnostic and easy to use and learn
- Secure and safe in a hosted platform with easy access
- Work collaboratively to design, amend, approve and share
- Attach files, videos and links direct from the process diagrams
- Speed up discovery and ensure complete, accurate details to develop automations
It’s really not that difficult to switch to a digital platform for your RPA program and the Skore product is incredibly intuitive and easy to learn (L&W provide full training if you’re unsure). There’s a trial version too, so what have you got to lose, apart from the pain of trying to map and define that perfect process for RPA that you’ve identified?
Your Call To Action
Your Call To Action