RPA Projects require special attention, engagement and better planning to be successful. RPA failures can be triggered in any of the following stage. Requirement & Planning: Most of the RPA projects starts failing from this stage only. Considering the fact that most of the enterprise are not yet ready for full blown RPA Implementations, Enterprise must follow a flexible & Iterative approach of development cycle. Start with absolute essentials and breakdown it with many smaller iterations. Believe that "Change is constant" & RPA projects always demands change. Analysis & Design: The analysis stage involves a core team to microscopically detail out the information collated in the previous stage. As much as details is absolute essential, Involve as many stakeholders including automation consultants, Subject matter experts, end business users. Lack of details may lead to higher cost/time & materials and it may lead project to massive failure. Do not try to change the business process/Workflow, instead try RPA project to adopt the existing processes. The objectives at this stage are to analyze the processes for simplification and reengineering, selection of processes right for RPA deployment, high-level business case development of such processes, and identification of processes that require artificial intelligence-based support. Execution, Monitoring & Control: For the successful execution of RPA project team must follow Agile, DevOps or a mix of both methodologies for deployment. Following Agile/DevOps model ensures that smaller chunk of development goes in every iterations. Build and deploy robots with rigorous testing and parallel go-live in short sprints to enable speedy but top-notch quality delivery. Shorter iterations gives an advantage of - More frequent Reviews give the Product Owner more feedback and more frequent opportunities to change. This should largely eliminate the need for the Product Owner to ever ask for a change (i.e. new Story) in the current Iteration. - Impediments and Slowdowns are highlighted more quickly, since the team is expected to get the feature(s) to done by the end of every Iteration. This forces the team to come to terms with things that are slowing them down. Overall - Identify what need to be done first, analyse business process in micrsoscpic details, Involve right team and right process for execution. At the end .. Let people know .. its not to replace them but to make everyone eficient ..

1. Rajan Kumar, Principal Architect, DHL
will be speaking at the 2nd Robotic Process
Automation Summit on Avoiding the
Common Mistakes in RPA Implementations.
Here he provides insight into some of the
common causes of RPA project failure.
For RPA projects to be successful they require special attention,
engagement and careful thought out planning. Failures can be
triggered in any of the following stages...
HOW NOT TO
FAIL AT RPA

2. REQUIREMENT & PLANNING
REMEMBER THAT CHANGE IS CONSTANT
Unfortunately many RPA projects stumble at the
first hurdle and therefore it’s imperative to spend
time planning the process.
The majority of initiatives aren’t ready for full
blown RPA implementation so take both a
flexible and iterative approach. Begin with the
absolute essentials necessary for the chosen
process(es) to work and then break them down
into smaller iterations.
A helpful thing to remember is believe that
“change is constant.” RPA projects always
demand change so it’s important to keep
evaluating, monitoring and adapting the process.
ANALYSIS & DESIGN
ADOPT EXISTING PROCESSES
The objectives at this stage are to:
 Analyze the processes for simplification and
reengineering
 Select the processes right for RPA deployment
 Develop the business case for each process
 Identify the processes that may require more
support i.e. with artificial intelligence
Don’t try and change the current business
processes. RPA is there to assist and improve the
current procedures and it will work best if it is
used to adopt them rather than start from scratch.
The analysis stage should involve a core team
to microscopically detail out the information
collated in the previous stage. Involve as many
stakeholders including automation consultants,
subject matter experts and end business users as
possible. It’s essential to have as much detail as
you can get. A lack of detail can lead to a higher
cost/time and materials and project failure.
2 How Not to Fail at RPA

3. 3How Not to Fail at RPA
EXECUTION, MONITORING CONTROL
A MIX OF AGILE AND DEVOPS
For the successful execution of an RPA project
the team must follow Agile, DevOps or a mix of
both methodologies for deployment.
Following the Agile/DevOps model ensures that
a smaller chunk of development goes into all
iterations. Build and deploy robots with rigorous
testing and parallel go-live in short sprints to
enable speedy but top-notch quality delivery.
The advantages of shorter iterations are:
 More frequent reviews give the Product
Owner more feedback and more frequent
opportunities to change.
 Impediments and Slowdowns are highlighted
more quickly, since the team is expected to
get the feature(s) done by the end of every
iteration.
OVERALL
Your checklist should be as follows:
 Spend time identifying what needs to be done
 Analyze the identified business process in
microscopic detail
 Make sure you involve the right team and
process for execution
If you would like to learn more, twenty RPA
senior practitioners are bringing their success
and failure stories to the RPA Asia Summit on
5-6 December to help you avoid the common
mistakes, tackle the challenges and ensure
success of your RPA projects.

4.  5-6 December 2017
 Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa,
Singapore
Ritesh Sarda
CIO,
Sunlife Financial
Hong Kong
Rae Amarullah
Director,
Upstream SC
Planning and
Data Analytics
Reporting,
Schneider
Electric
Moorthy LG
SVP,
Global Head -
Global Business
Services,
Olam
International
Rajan Kumar
Upadhyay
Principal
Architect,
DHL
Raymond Yulo
Process
Excellence
Manager,
Google
2017 KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
asiarpa.iqpc.sg
Implementing, scaling up and progressing RPA
towards intelligent automation