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Ah, I believe they’re calling that Robotic Process Automation (RPA) now. Why bother to even look for the API docs for that shitty SaaS app? Just train Selenium

Ah, I believe they’re calling that Robotic Process Automation (RPA) now. Why bother to even look for the API docs for that shitty SaaS app? Just train Selenium to do it and feed it inputs, then hire some dude offshore to update the automation whenever some step breaks because they changed it on the other end. Honestly it’s faster/cheaper than doing proper integrations most of the time, simply because the tools are already well-known to the users so there isn’t a lot of futzing around with unfamiliar tools or APIs. It turns a technical challenge into a business challenge simply by automating the lowest common denominator through the stupidest possible means, and automating it through a point and click GUI. It’s the final nail in the coffin of the swivel-chair data analyst at most companies, however. This is already happening widely across fortune 500s today... the bloodbath is being felt by the Indian offshore folks who are losing a ton of basic automation support / development work to these RPA tools (which can be operated by onshore management consultants doing operational design work).

polskibus 8y ago
What RPA tools would you say are the best ? Anything you'd recommend?
- exelius 8y ago
  Depends where you are in the market and what other tools you’re using. I’ve seen it set up many ways; from just recording macros in SeleniumUI, hand-parameterizing them and running them on SauceLabs to being part of a full enterprise integration suite like Pegasystems. I would say UIPath has a pretty good product at the low-mid range though. The high end tools require serious enterprise architecture capabilities like business process management already be in place. UIPath is pretty good if you just want to set up a simple API gateway, parameterize some flows and pass data back and forth. This space is only now heating up, but IMO a dumb technology like RPA can be more transformative to the industry than we think simply because it’s not technologically elegant. It does solve a real business problem (need to keep deep technical knowledge in many many areas on staff) with a very general-purpose setup.

polskibus 8y ago

What RPA tools would you say are the best ? Anything you'd recommend?

exelius 8y ago
Depends where you are in the market and what other tools you’re using. I’ve seen it set up many ways; from just recording macros in SeleniumUI, hand-parameterizing them and running them on SauceLabs to being part of a full enterprise integration suite like Pegasystems. I would say UIPath has a pretty good product at the low-mid range though. The high end tools require serious enterprise architecture capabilities like business process management already be in place. UIPath is pretty good if you just want to set up a simple API gateway, parameterize some flows and pass data back and forth. This space is only now heating up, but IMO a dumb technology like RPA can be more transformative to the industry than we think simply because it’s not technologically elegant. It does solve a real business problem (need to keep deep technical knowledge in many many areas on staff) with a very general-purpose setup.