The "Ten Commandments" of Kryon RPA Attended Automation (design/implementation):
- Always prompt/ask a user before "taking over"; never simply take (away) user control (unless specifically necessary/desired for the automation workflow)!
- Always take into account (and plan for) potentially different (windows-/colour-) themes, resolutions, languages, multi-monitor setups, etc. and choose & test automation mechanisms accordingly!
- Tweak attended automation workflows for maximum speed (and minimum user "waiting")!
- Always display a bubble to the user when the wizard works "behind the scenes" so the user knows that something is (still) happening and the workflow hasn't timed out!
- Tweak wizards for minimum intrusiveness (towards users)! I.e., if you can run it "in the background" (so the user can continue working), do so accordingly!
- If something goes wrong: Notify the user via bubble/message box! The user needs to know the outcome of the automation so that they can react accordingly!
- Avoid - if possible - working with clipboard data! For one, you do not know what the user had/has in the clipboard and if they might still need to use it (you may interfere with their work)! For another, you may put something in the clipboard that is dangerous/undesirable for the user to see. Be cautious!
- Since a user is somewhat "unpredictable", attended automation workflows have the greater potential of failing. As such, be sure to implement comprehensive fallback mechanisms to deal with potential problems, such as applications/windows not being open, etc. Find creative ways to make sure the automation can still be performed - perhaps by interacting with/informing the user and asking them to open applications or point to missing resources - so that users learn to trust the attended automation and make use of it frequently!
- Make sure to align on and set - in correspondence with the customer - the proper options to allow a user to close bubbles, end/quit the automation/sensor or decline/skip sensors altogether. Again: Unwanted interference needs to be kept to an absolute minimum while still keeping things as robust as possible!
- Choose and configure your sensors recurrence options wisely to - once again - avoid unnecessary interference with the users!
Got your own commandments & ideas? Drop them in the comments below and share them with the whole Kryon Community!
