Overview
Knowing how to build bots and packages is vital to create automation opportunities, but are your bots and packages consistently following established best practices for re-usability and security? In this learning experience, learn about the best practices suggested by Automation Anywhere and how you might implement them within your organization. Beyond automating the task at hand, there are several questions developers should ask themselves as they are developing bots and packages. Am I doing my development in a way that components from this bot could be easily reused and integrated into other bots? Are there parts of the process I’m automating similar to already built bots/packages which I could leverage instead of building from scratch? Is my bot/package built in a way that I am introducing a security risk on deployment or execution of my bot/package? If you haven’t been asking yourself such questions - it’s okay, but it’s time to start. You should develop your bots and packages in a way where potential re-usability and security risk exposure is a consideration in the planning, execution, and deployment phases of the bot build. Let’s look at some best practices for creating reusable bots and command packages, as well as some best practices for creating secure, reliable bots.
To Do
Take a look at the best practices for building reusable packages and the best practices for building reusable bots.
Keep in mind that not EVERY best practice may apply to every automation process, but will likely apply to the majority of bot/package builds. Best Practices: Command Packages Best Practices: Bots
Watch the video on building resilient, reusable bots from Imagine Digital.
Check out the Imagine Digital presentation on Stepping Up Your Bot Security.
This is an excellent resource for building secure bots.
Summary
Just like employees adhere to an organization’s physical and virtual security, best practices, bots, and packages must do the same. RPA practices with the foresight to build secure, reusable bots and packages will scale more quickly and find a faster return on their automation investments. Whether you’re an experienced bot builder, or just getting started - there’s no better time than now to put into practice efforts to focus on reusability and ensuring security best practices are being followed in all of your bot builds.
Resources
Training
Automation Anywhere Secure Bot Developer learning trail
Blog Posts
Ten Best Practices for Secure Bot Design
Must-Haves to Secure Your RPA
3 Key Considerations to Take Your RPA Implementation up a Level
Reference Items