RPA Project - Standard Practices

Main points to follow when aiming for a good project organization:

• Design before building

Analyze the process thoroughly, identify the requirements and plan what the solution should look like before starting the actual development.

• Break the process down into components

Break the process down into smaller workflows for a better understanding of the code, independent testing, and reusability. This can also impact the effectiveness, as different team members can work on different (smaller) workflows.

• Reuse components

Use libraries for creating and storing reusable components for your projects.

• Use folders in your project

Group the workflows of your project into different folders based on the target application

• Follow a naming convention

Keep a consistent naming convention across the project.

• Configure arguments correctly

Use the right type of argument (In/Out/InOut) when invoking a workflow based on the direction of information. For naming, our recommendation is PascalCase with the direction of the argument as a prefix (in_/out_/io_).

• Handle sensitive data with care

Handle sensitive data responsibly: no credentials should be stored in the workflow directly, but rather loaded from safer places like the Windows credential store or Orchestrator assets and used with the Get Secure Credentials, Get Credentials and Type Secure Text activities.

• Handle specific exceptions

Use Try/Catch blocks to predict and handle exceptions. At the same time, remember that simply using Try/Catch will only identify the error, not solve it. Thus, make sure you develop error handling mechanisms and integrate them.

• Handle global exceptions

Use the Global Exception Handler for situations that are global and/or less probable to happen (for example, a Windows Update pop-up).

• Make your projects easy to read

Add annotations to your workflows to clarify the purpose of each workflow.

• Use logging

Use logs in production to get relevant information regarding critical moments or anytime specific data is needed. You can read more about the types of logs.