Life of RPA Solution Architect

RPA Solution Architect is one of the most demanding and most challenging job in RPA industry. Allow me to use acronym for Solution Architect as SA.

Today we will specifically talk about roles and responsibilities of RPA-SA in COE. Please add your suggestion, question or addition to this article in the comments.

SA is one of the most important key player in any COE (Center of Excellence) team. Sometimes it is really difficult to survive in this role, based on it's limited knowledge repository but you get to become the part of those who create knowledge base for this specific job role. When I say there is very less information in knowledge base that means we all need to come together and help increase the knowledge base for each job role in RPA industry.

What is the role of Solution Architect in COE?

1. Define the architecture of RPA solutions. Design the flow diagram to simplify the understanding of architecture definition.
2. Select/Suggest appropriate set of technology and tools to be used to build the solution.
3. Understand the process end to end and document it as per understanding.
4. Support each phase of RPA lifecycle right from "Requirement Gathering" to "Hypercare".
5. Make sure the solution aligns with the enterprise guidelines.

What are the responsibilities of Solution Architect?

1. define the solution architecture in diagrammatical representation. Make solution design more visual to make it simple for the business user and developer to understand the flow.
2. Write solution design document (SDD) to give a better guided end to end documentation. A know how handbook for developer to build solution.
3. Perform code review also define the rules and regulations for Troubleshooting, Debugging, Internal Testing & Workflow Analyzer rules.
4. Try to optimize the AS-IS process by suggesting optimistic architectural approach.
5. Perform effort estimation for project in requirement gathering phase to streamline RPA lifecycle.
6. Perform PDD and DSD sign off - Verification of PDD designed by Business Analyst and DSD by Developer.
7. Define the requirements of solution design such as, number of robots required, configuration type, assets, queue, triggers, execution approach & human in loop approach if needed.
8. Define the reusable components and create library of such modules if project reuses these on high requirement.
9. Create logging and reporting dashboards to visualize the output.
10. Write knowledge base for developers on confluence page for Development best practices.
11. Help developers with the technical blockers and conduct weekly meetings to review the development approach.
12. Help client understand the RPA transition in every stage of RPA lifecycle.
13. Help project manager, tech lead and business analyst to maintain the technical level synchronization.

What are expectations from Solution Architect?

1. Setting up Development, Testing (UAT) & Production orchestrator environment.
2. Distribute licenses and assigns specific roles to each user.
3. Give technical inputs & change in process if needed to optimize the AS-IS process.
4. Testing development thoroughly before going to User Acceptance Testing.(UAT)
5. Take decision for sustainability and hypercare period.
6. Manage smooth transition of production deployment -> Hypercare -> Change request -> Handover solution to client.
7. Manage and host handover meetings with client.

Who can become RPA Solution Architect?

1. Who has minimum 5 years of core programming experience.
2. Experienced on .Net, C# & VB. (At least 3 years)
3. Minimum 2+ years of RPA Developer experienced.
4. Who has knowledge on infrastructure setup, storage, firewall, load balancer, routers, database, etc.
5. Who has ability to visualize and draw architecture diagram.
6. Who has strong conceptual & analytical skills.
7. Team player and a true leader with cross team experience.
8. Great presenter and speaker.

Challenges faced being RPA Solution Architect?

1. Less availability of knowledge base on template documentation. Sometimes you have to design and create your own document template which takes huge time.
2. Multi project allocation puts a huge pressure on completion and management of multiple deliveries.
3. Keeping yourself up-to date with the latest updates of the RPA product and roadmap of upcoming release as you need to inform client when to upgrade and what to expect from product.
4. Awareness of other products in market to answer confidently in client meetings when asked to compare the product feature with market competition.
5. Good communication with developers, because one miss communication or bad reputation will lose your impact over developers approach and you end up fixing all the best practices around edge of delivery.
6. Do no over commit to client, always keep buffer time in effort estimation and stand on your point while being questioned by tech lead or client.
7. Remember multiple projects process, if you are dealing with multiple projects then remembering the process flow till delivery date is difficult so keep short informative note of each project and keep in touch with developer to maintain the knowledge base of project.
8. Do not underestimate the developers, sometimes developers have better approach of doing things and you might end up not giving optimistic approach. Always be ready to accept suggestions and questions.

Around the end of this article I just want to say being a RPA Solution Architect is fun, challenging, sometimes frustrating, sometimes happening, sometimes easy, sometimes difficult, sometimes it is amazing to be close to technology rather than management roles.

RPA Solution Architect is super amazing role to play... what are your thoughts about it?