RPA Process Design and Best Practices Flashcards

What is 'modular design' in RPA development?

Answer: Building automation in small, reusable components that can be combined across multiple processes

Modular design involves creating reusable sub-components (like login modules or error handlers) that multiple bots can reuse, improving maintainability.

Why is 'hardcoding' values in bot workflows considered a bad practice?

Answer: It makes bots inflexible and difficult to maintain when values like URLs or credentials change

Hardcoded values must be changed inside the workflow itself when environments change, increasing maintenance effort and risk of errors.

What is the recommended approach for handling sensitive data in RPA workflows?

Answer: Store credentials in a credential vault and retrieve them at runtime

Best practice is to use the RPA platform's built-in credential vault, which securely stores and serves credentials to bots at runtime without exposing them in code.

What is 'logging' important for in an RPA bot?

Answer: Providing an audit trail of bot actions for debugging, compliance, and monitoring

Logging records what a bot did, when, and with what data — essential for debugging failures, meeting compliance requirements, and monitoring performance.

In RPA best practices, what is 'regression testing'?

Answer: Re-running existing test cases after changes to ensure the bot still works correctly

Regression testing confirms that updates or fixes to a bot haven't broken previously working functionality by re-executing the full test suite.

What does 'process complexity score' help determine in RPA project selection?

Answer: The estimated effort, risk, and feasibility of automating a specific process

A process complexity score evaluates factors like number of decision points, system integrations, and exception types to determine how hard and risky the automation will be.