Checklist-based Support of Knowledge Workers in Robotic Process Automation Projects

Abstract

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the rule-based automation of business process tasks by software robots mimicking human interactions. RPA projects often fail or do not achieve the expected benefits due to a missing support of the humans developing the robots. In practice, such software robots are often developed and configured by knowledge workers without any IT background. These non-IT experts require appropriate development and configuration support. The aim of this paper is to provide a checklist-based support of knowledge workers in conducting RPA projects. After an initial design, which is based on interviews with knowledge workers, an exploratory RPA case study in industry, and surveys among bot users, the checklist is improved in three iterations with comprehensive user feedback. The finally obtained checklist is evaluated in six RPA projects in industrial practice showing satisfying results. In particular, no project has failed and the expected full time equivalents savings, reduction of errors, and improvement of process speed have been achieved. Altogether, the checklist enables smooth process support of knowledge workers in RPA projects.