The process definition document

Once you have decided which process to automate, we will create a process definition document (PDD). Don't be daunted by the thought of doing documentation. The PDD is simply a place to write down exactly what the robot should be doing, step-by-step. Think of the robot as a new trainee and you will need to pass it the manual on how to perform this task. If you already have a manual, you can re-use it. Otherwise, even doing a simple one at this point will help organize your thought processes later when you build the process.

The PDD typically contains the following sections:

• Manual process description and target systems
• Process diagram
• Process details
• Exceptions

Let's walk through each section in detail for the weekly purchase of groceries process that we will be building.

Manual process description and target systems

To start off, we will capture the high level description of the process. In our example, we could write the following:

• A shopping list is drawn up based on what we need for the upcoming week
• We log on to the shopping site, http://www.amazon.com, every Monday at 10:00 am in the morning
• One-by-one, we work through the shopping list and search for the items to purchase
• The item is added to the shopping cart
• An email alert is sent to me for verification and to check out the item

Here, we will also note the systems that we are going to work with. In this case, that will be the shopping site, http://www.amazon.com as well as Excel, for storing the shopping list, and Outlook for sending out emails.

Process diagram

Next, we will draw out the process diagram, which is really a pictorial way to show what the process does in the form of a flow chart.

The flow chart always has a start and end point that is typically depicted by two ovals. In between, add the steps of the process inside rectangles. You do not have to put in the details of each step; that will be done in the next section.

The process starts by getting the list of items to purchase. We then work through the list one-by-one by launching the shopping website, search for the item and add it to the cart. After the operation is done, we close the website.

We also have a decision diamond to decide whether or not there are more items to purchase. If there are, we loop back to get the next item to purchase. Once everything has been added to the cart, we send an email notification to inform someone to check out the items and complete the purchase.

The following diagram shows what the flow chart looks like:

Process details

There are several ways of recording the process details. This is the section that often goes out of date very quickly and is also the most difficult to capture correctly. One way is to take a screenshot of each step in the process and write down which buttons to click, what to enter in each text box, etc. Please see the following example:

• Get list of items to purchase: Before starting the purchase, look up the list written in the Excel spreadsheet titled Shopping List.
• Searching for item to purchase: Search for the item by following the steps shown here:

1. • Open Internet Explorer. Navigate to http://www.amazon.com.
   • Go to the search box at the top of the page. Enter the keywords that match the item to purchase.
   • Click the Search button:

• Choose the item to purchase: When the search results appear, we pick the one we want to purchase:
  • Scan through the search results.
  • Click on the first item on the list that matches the description that is not a sponsored product:

As you can imagine, this is a very detailed way of documenting the entire process. Every mouse-click, keyboard entry, dialog, and pop-up are meticulously recorded here. The more details that you provide in this section, the better. It's just like a movie script that tells you exactly what to do each step of the way. Ideally, you can pass this set of instructions to anyone and they will be able to perform the task for you as if you were doing it yourself.

Sometimes, it gets too tedious to write everything down. Alternatively, consider capturing the details by recording it into a movie. Have the subject matter expert execute the task, and do a live recording with a screen movie capture tool. A voice commentary while he/she clicks through the screens will serve as a form of documentation for the thought processes behind each click.

Exceptions

We'd like to think that the robot will always get it right the first time. However, remember that the robot will only do what you tell it to do. If it meets an unknown situation, like if the item is out of stock, it will not know how to respond and will terminate the process.

It's not too early to think of all the what-ifs that could happen when executing the process. Writing it down in this section will help us to plan out the design of the process better and train the robot to gracefully deal with as many unknowns as you can think of at this point.

For example, exceptions that could possibly happen in our little grocery purchasing process could include the following:

• The item that we are looking for cannot be found
• The item that we are looking for is out-of-stock

In this case, we would probably get the robot to note down which items it is not able to add to the basket and mail us a list at the end of the process.