What is the best way to select an automation platform for computer engineering?

1 Your goals and requirements

The first step to select an automation platform is to define your goals and requirements for your computer engineering project. What are you trying to automate, and why? What are the expected outcomes and benefits? What are the constraints and challenges? How will you measure the success and performance of your automation? These questions will help you narrow down your options and prioritize your criteria.

3 Your automation skills and resources

The third step is to consider your automation skills and resources that you have or need for your computer engineering project. What level of expertise do you have in automation, programming, scripting, testing, debugging, and troubleshooting? What tools and languages do you prefer or need to use? How much time and budget do you have for learning and training? How many people will be involved in the automation process, and what roles and responsibilities will they have? These questions will help you determine the complexity and flexibility of your automation platform.

4 Your automation scope and scale

The fourth step is to define your automation scope and scale for your computer engineering project. What are the tasks, processes, functions, or features that you want to automate, and how often, how fast, and how reliably do you want them to run? How many inputs, outputs, variables, parameters, or data points do you need to handle? How many users, clients, customers, or stakeholders will interact with or benefit from your automation? These questions will help you estimate the capacity and reliability of your automation platform.

5 Your automation type and level

The fifth step is to choose your automation type and level for your computer engineering project. What are the main categories or domains of automation that you are interested in, such as web, desktop, mobile, cloud, network, database, or embedded? What are the specific technologies or frameworks that you want to use, such as GUI, API, RPA, AI, ML, or IoT? What are the levels of automation that you want to achieve, such as assisted, augmented, or autonomous? These questions will help you select the features and functions of your automation platform.

6 Your automation platform options

The final step is to compare and contrast your automation platform options for your computer engineering project. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each platform, such as functionality, usability, compatibility, scalability, security, performance, or support? What are the reviews and ratings of each platform, from experts, peers, or users? What are the costs and benefits of each platform, such as license, subscription, installation, maintenance, or upgrade? These questions will help you make the final decision and select the best automation platform for your computer engineering project.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?