How to become an RPA Business Analyst

Several emerging technologies have come up in recent years that have disrupted traditional business models and forced enterprises to rethink their strategies to adopt them into their structures. Technologies such as AI, ML, DevOps, Cloud Computing, IoT, Blockchain, and robotics are making headway in the technology space, and businesses are today, more than ever, having so much innovation to integrate into their operations to stay ahead of the competition.

While RPA is a relatively new concept, it is emerging as an important technology to streamline operations and minimize costs in the business. At the same time,the RPA certification course is gaining significance in equipping employees with the knowledge, practices, and tools to implement and run RPA-powered systems. RPA presents the solution to the digital transformation challenges that businesses are facing today as a result of embracing emerging technologies.

Adoption of RPA systems and practices

As of 2018, in the Global RPA Survey conducted by Deloitte, 53% of respondents had already begun their RPA adoption journey. A figure that Deloitte projected to rise to 72% by 2020. In the same year, RPA was ranked the fastest-growing enterprise software category by Gartner.

RPA software has its application across most if not all industries. However, according to Gartner, the banking, telecoms, utilities, and insurance industries are by far the biggest adopters of RPA software and are already benefiting from the value that RPA has to offer. Something common about the biggest adopters is that they have employed several legacy systems and RPA solutions enable them to integrate these systems while still pursuing digital transformation initiatives.

The RPA market continues to grow rapidly. By 2027, it is projected that it will be worth more than $10.7 billion. 90% of European companies will have adopted it by 2020 while in India it will have created 200,000 jobs by 2021. Of importance to note is that there is a rising demand for business process automation (BPA) and AI and RPA will be the key drivers of this demand.

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What is RPA?

Robotic process automation is a technology that employs programmed software robots to perform tedious repetitive tasks like data manipulation. RPA helps organizations to streamline their business operations. Software robots are quite different from AI software in that they do not have the capacity to learn.

RPA uses a computer as a robot to perform tasks done by humans. Software is programmed, which automates the repetitive tasks previously done by humans. Humans, on the other hand, remain with irreplaceable exception and supervision tasks. While it was imagined that RPA would cause employees to lose their jobs, it has in a different way empowered them to focus on the more important tasks like configuring RPA software.

Why businesses need RPA

• Cost reduction and increased ROI. Automating repetitive tasks reduces the number of employees as well as the time it takes to perform these tasks and ultimately the cost of operation by up to 60%. The effect of cost reduction and time savings is an increase in ROI.
• Faster accurate implementation and execution. Robots not only perform repetitive tasks faster but also eliminate the errors that would have been made by humans thereby increasing speed to market.
• Employee efficiency. Automation may lead to loss of jobs for employees that perform automated tasks. However, those with additional skills could be assigned different irreplaceable tasks. This gives them a new sense of purpose, makes them more efficient and engaged as they perform value-added and supervisory tasks.
• Increased productivity. Robots can be programmed to work 24 hours without downtime.
• Scaling flexibility. Robots are flexible. They can be programmed to work more when there is high demand and less when demand goes down. This makes scaling easy and achievable.
• A shift in business approach. Robotics shifts the business approach from labor-centered to technology-centered from which better value is derived.
• Compliance. With the implementation of RPA, humans will interact less with data which means that sensitive data will be safe and the probability of fraud minimized significantly.

Who is an RPA Business Analyst 

With the rising adoption of RPA, the need for RPA related skills is on the rise. RPA tools and practices should be part of the toolset of not just business analysts but also data architects, system administrators, and other professionals.

An RPA business analyst is in charge of process automation. He is the link between the technical and specialist teams in a robotics project. An RPA BA has deep process analysis knowledge, has a keen eye for opportunities for robotics automation, and is an analytical thinker who analyzes challenges in the automation pipeline.

Roles of the RPA Business Analyst

The primary responsibility of the RPA business analyst is to analyze the business processes and identify viable opportunities for RPA implementation. Thereafter, he does pre-implementation design and structuring, value proposition, and recommends an RPA solution for the business.  

Some of the specific roles he is involved in include:

• Analysis of business processes, identifying and taking note of user requirements in the business.
• Performs a requirements analysis and creates specifications (in the form of a process design document) for the user systems requiring automation.
• Does design work (including functional and process designs), prototyping, and facilitates the development and implementation of the RPA approach.
• Supports the testing process of both hardware and software systems as well as quality assurance on which RPA has been implemented.
• Develops training modules, technical user guides, and defines the support process of the RPA approach.
• Integrates Agile methodology through the development of RPA systems to adopt new features and change of requirements through change management.
• Keep accessing the system to identify problems as well as opportunities for continuous improvement
• Regular updating of the system for the purposes of risk mitigation
• He is part of the review team, where the project’s actual progress is evaluated against the key performance indicators.
• Ensures proper coordination between teams involved in the RPA project while ensuring that proper documentation is supplied to the stakeholders and oversees the change management process.

How to become an RPA Business Analyst

RPA business analysts are knowledgeable about RPA industry approaches, principles, and practices. Most will come from a business analyst background as their roles, apart from the RPA function are almost always the same. However, he/she should have a broad understanding of the specific industry he is analyzing.

Some skills that an RPA BA is expected to possess include:

Technical skills

• Requirements analysis
• Business process design
• Process documentation
• Creating smart documents

Non-Technical skills

• Communication
• curious
• Patience
• Good analytical  skills
• Time management
• Relationship management
• Problem-solving

RPA Training course

While it is an added advantage pursuing a career as an RPA business analyst, you still have the opportunity to take advantage of the training whether you are coming from a technical or non-technical background.

Secondly, if you already have some experience in process design, you will be better placed to enroll in the RPA training course.

The RPA Business Analyst Training course

UiPath, the largest RPA service provider offers online RPA training courses following two certification paths, the business analyst and the business developer path.

This learning path requires 40 coursework hours. The coursework is free and will prepare you adequately for the certification.  

If you are considering pursuing the course without any prior experience, it would be advisable to first enroll for the RPA awareness course which will equip you with the basics of RPA before you enroll for a specialist course.

The time is right to pursue a career in RPA business analysis as organizations continue to adopt the RPA approach into their operations.