RPA Workflow Testing for Application and Environment Changes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Robotic process automation (RPA) systems face challenges in maintaining stability due to application and environment changes, lacking robustness in exception handling and maintenance, which affects the reliability of automated workflows.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method for creating and executing test cases for existing workflows to identify and report environmental and automation issues, including data-driven workflow testing to reduce manual effort and enhance resilience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If RPA bots are implemented to automate processes, then productivity and efficiency are improved, but stability and reliability deteriorate due to application changes and environment changes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements test case execution before deploying RPA bots to production environments. This preliminary testing action identifies potential stability issues related to application changes and environment changes before they affect bot reliability, thus resolving the contradiction between improving productivity through automation and maintaining bot stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent establishes a feedback mechanism where test results from executing test cases against RPA bots are analyzed and used to improve bot stability. The system continuously monitors bot performance, detects issues caused by application or environment changes, and triggers appropriate responses, thereby maintaining reliability while preserving productivity gains.
2Ease of operation
If RPA implementations focus on happy paths, then ease of operation is improved, but reliability worsens due to lack of exception handling and resilience
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates and executes test cases that specifically target exception scenarios and edge cases before production deployment. This preliminary action ensures that exception handling paths are validated and resilient, allowing the system to maintain ease of operation while significantly improving reliability through comprehensive test coverage of non-happy paths.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements test cases that anticipate potential failures and exceptions before they occur in production. By pre-defining test scenarios that cover exception handling and error conditions, the system prepares counter-measures in advance, ensuring reliability without complicating the operational simplicity of the main automation flows.
3Measurement precision
If manual testing is used to detect environmental and automation issues, then measurement precision is improved, but loss of time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements automated test case execution that performs self-testing of RPA bots without requiring manual intervention. The system automatically creates test cases, executes them against the bots, and generates reports identifying environmental and automation issues. This self-service approach maintains high measurement precision for issue detection while eliminating the time loss associated with manual testing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical process of manual testing with an automated computational system. Test cases are automatically created and executed using software agents that interact with RPA bots, substituting human manual testing activities with automated mechanisms. This substitution preserves detection accuracy while dramatically reducing the time required for testing and issue identification.
Data Source
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AI summary
Test cases for existing workflows (or workflows under test) may be created and executed. A test case may be created for a workflow in production or one or more parts of the workflow, and the created test case for the workflow, or the one or more parts of the workflow, may be executed to identify environmental and/or automation issues for the workflow. A failed workflow test may be reported when the environmental and/or automation issues are identified.