People

Foundation: People

People are key to any RPA deployment. It is not all about digital workers. Without the right people involved deployments will not be as successful as they could be. This foundation looks at the skills and responsibilities needed to execute a project successfully. It will also help you to identify training needs and the relevant certifications for your team. 

Skills and Responsibilities 

The ROM recommends a number of skills as part of a successful RPA deployment. We provide a list of skills and an in depth look at each of the responsibilities and training options in our Skills and Responsibilities section.

Training recommendations

• Revisit training guides, tutorials and self-tests on the Blue Prism learning management system every 6 months
• Consider utilizing external training providers to augment internal training
• Ensure that all skills have a defined learning path and are equipped with the appropriate skills and knowledge
• Ensure optimum training / mentoring approach for the Blue Prism delivery and support teams is in place
• It is imperative a training platform is in place with the key being to ensure all skills identified follow an upskilling path 
• Provide access to the training courses and material required for the team members to be skilled adequately in their role
• Consider how to evolve the training platform as your RPA Capability starts to mature in readiness for scale.

Find out more about Training and Certification

Think Scale 

• Ensure the roles in your current model are adequate to scale to the next level of maturity
• Evaluate how you will scale the current structure and team to manage more process builds and a larger digital workforce
• Establish training paths to future-proof your team
• Plan for how you will add new roles to your model and how they will be trained
• Continually review the team structures roles and responsibilities to ensure segregation of duties is sufficient. 

Human Resources (HR) 

HR are an essential stakeholder in any RPA deployment. They can assist with the successful deployment of digital workers and the development of human workers. 

It is recommended that: 

• You engage with HR to ensure that any impact to the human workforce is well defined and planned for. This is especially important where existing teams may need to manually perform a process in case business continuity is invoked. 
• HR should be involved in on-boarding the Digital Workforce. This will make it easier to gain the relevant access and accounts for the digital workers. 
• HR help with cultural adoption. Deploying RPA can cause fear within an organisation. It is therefore vitally important to bring the business along with the journey and proactively drive cultural adoption.  
• Utilize HR expertise to help build job descriptions, succession and training plans.  

Mentoring  

Mentoring is one of the most overlooked, but most fundamental elements of any RPA program. Bringing in one or two skilled and experienced resources to work alongside a new team will fast-track the abilities of the team and ensure standards are set from the beginning. The mentor approach taken early will also help avoid the most common pitfalls. 

An effective mentor is someone with several years working with the Blue Prism technology. They should also be strong communicators and an advocate for the defined service standards. They may be brought in as permanent team members, or you may consider using a partner or Blue Prism resource. 

Training paths 

Blue Prism provide recommended certification paths for a variety of RPA skills. It is recommended that you: 

• Ensure each team member has a defined certification path  
• Check the Blue Prism certification paths every 6 months and update your approach as required
• Ensure experienced Lead Developers have completed the Lead Developer training path
• Consider putting all team members through the appropriate accreditation in line with their function. 

Checklist