12 Attributes of a Good RPA Developer You Should Not Miss!

As enterprises move in on RPA, they need developers who can juggle both the business and technical sides of automation. This blog will discuss twelve attributes of a good RPA developer.

Menial tasks rob employees of time they could spend on more productive activities. But when done right, Robotic Process Automation can oust a bucketful of mindful chores. 

For instance, streamlining enterprise operations, reducing costs and freeing workers to focus on higher-value work make RPA crucial for the future of enterprise technology. 

And, as the C-executive continues to consider automated solutions to make processes easier and more efficient, RPA (Robotics Process Automation) quickly turns into a strategy you can’t ignore. 

Besides, businesses are switching to RPA solutions quickly to become more competitive and resilient without worrying about a significant software project or system overhaul. As a result, there is a substantial rise in the demand for RPA experts to cater for these new automated business processes and address present and future skills deficits.  

But that doesn’t mean you can’t have your pick of the best. Expectations may differ from company to company, but here's a handful of best practices that are unskippable for an RPA developer and should be on your checklist before you make a hiring decision. 

Here, we’ll analyze the roles, responsibilities and skills an RPA developer has. Also, we’ll discuss the accreditation needed for employing an RPA developer. 

Firstly, let’s take a closer look at the main roles and responsibilities of an RPA developer and the key skills required for the job, including first-hand insights from experienced RPA developers. 

Though RPA systems carry out processes independently, they still rely on highly skilled RPA Development teams for maintenance and improvisations. 

Roles and Responsibilities of RPA Developer

Often, the main roles and responsibilities of an RPA developer are to design, develop, and integrate software robots or bots alongside humans to improve business process efficiency. Maintaining bots is also part of the job of an RPA developer.

So, if you are still wondering what exactly the role of an RPA Developer entails and why is it crucial?

Here’s the answer! The RPA developer's responsibilities are divided into phases of RPA development.

Phase 1: Business Analysis Duties

The first phase includes the business analysis of a problem and explores the opportunities for automation solutions.   

Phase 2: Problem Identification

In this step, the developer analyzes the company’s business domain, identifies business-critical points, and learns what part of the flow can be automated. 

Phase 3: Requirement Gathering

When understanding the specifics of the potential automation case, an RPA developer will collect the requirements from the end users. Typically, this is done by interviewing employees to discuss the pain points and steps in task completion.

Phase 4: Documenting Business Process Steps

For automating the process, an RPA developer will learn the logic of the task and the actual steps needed to complete it. Then, they will document this information to collaborate with software development teams and create a bot design.

Now, let’s step toward the software development duties of an RPA developer

Phase 5: RPA Development Responsibilities

This needs an RPA developer to design the connected ecosystem of tools to deploy bots, track their performance, and integrate them with the company's existing technologies.

So, as an RPA developer, this role entails numerous responsibilities:

• Process mining
• Data management
• Process flow control
• RPA bot development
• Testing and troubleshooting
• Creating an RPA ecosystem
• Deploying RPA components
• Supervising RPA development 

Considering the mix of business analysis and software development, RPA developers must have specific skills. So, let’s talk about them. 

12 Attributes of a Good RPA Developer

While programming language knowledge depends on the specific company technology stack, many other elements are considered must-haves for an RPA developer. Some of the key abilities required for this role include: 

1. Coding Skills

We’ve pocketed the programming languages and frameworks to work with automation bots here.  

• Python: Python is a popular scripting language for RPA, as numerous bots use scripts written in Python and some of its libraries. 
• .NET/ASP.NET: These are the frameworks for Visual Basic and the common group of languages. Especially, .NET is a platform of frameworks that allows the creation of web and desktop cross-platform apps and is also a popular choice for writing RPA software on C/C#. 
• C/C#: is yet another common group of languages for designing RPA software for desktops. 
• Visual Basic: Visual Basic is a popular language for RPA, and some significant vendors like UiPath and Automation Anywhere use it as their primary language.  
• JavaScript: JavaScript is needed for developing web-based RPA.

2. Analytical Skills

There’s no doubt that an essential aspect of designing RPA is digging into internal processes, and for this, a business analysis background is often required. Besides, this makes it a crucial factor for precisely understanding the process flows and indicating opportunities for automation. 

3. Strong Communication Skills

Soft skills are unskippable for seamless communication between the end users, development teams, and other stakeholders. And, as an RPA developer acts both as a business analyst and software developer, their job eclipses an exceptional amount of communication and elaboration. 

4. Problem-Solving Mindset

For an RPA developer, a problem-solving mindset is not just a skill written in a resume. 

Indeed, RPA's core objective is to solve business problems, optimize budget, and resolve productivity concerns. So, it’s important to pay attention to candidates a business development background coupled with RPA experience. 

5. Understanding UX Principles

True to any development role, this skill is vital for RPA developers. As the dominant user group for RPA is business, interface and bot training should be as intuitive as possible to ensure seamless and successful integration into the workflow.  

6. Proficiency in Mining Process

As a key aspect of RPA activity, a comprehensive understanding of process mining is essential for most RPA-related roles. 

7. Expertise in Machine Learning

RPA is a technology that helps automate simple processes. 

But over the years, it has evolved into a new branch of technology termed Cognitive Automation. This technology is a blend of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and RPA that expands the potential of traditional bots. 

A Reminder - Adhering to the fact that Machine Learning is a complex field, it’s advisable to hire a dedicated professional to do activities related to model training, as the chances of a single individual having a background in software development, RPA, and Machine Learning is unthinkable.

8. Mastery of RPA Tools

Most companies embracing RPA use standard solutions from trusted RPA service providers. 

As there are untold out-of-the-box solutions, hiring the right RPA developer narrows down to implementing and maintaining technologies. Nevertheless, experience with such tools is needed even for higher positions, so here’s a list of the most popular technologies:

• UiPath
• Blue Prism
• Automation Anywhere

Must Read: Best RPA [Robotic Process Automation] Tools

9. Competence With Data Analytics 

Unquestionably, experience in data analytics is one of the attractive RPA attributes every developer should have. Moreover, it’s crucial because it plays a huge part when working with automation deployments that consist of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. 

Since RPA bots transform complex and unstructured data into organized and automated tasks, competency with data analytics is vital to understanding different types of variables, arrays, and dictionaries.  

Simply put, an RPA developer should be able to perform operations on data sets and understand the scope of variables. 

10. Process Mapping Skills 

This architectural skill might need acknowledgement with process mining software, which analyses data and logs created during different processes and identifies potential bottlenecks. 

In addition, the RPA developers should be capable of interviewing business-side employees to understand the specific activities they carry out that make up the more significant business process. 

11. API Integrations 

You don’t need to be the most adept developer to build automation; you just need to have an in-depth knowledge of XML and XSD. In addition, advanced familiarity with REST API and SoapUI is an added feather.  

The integration in the RPA bot often happens on the system’s UI layer; sometimes, the need arises to send API requests. Though this rarely happens, integrations through APIs can be a crucial differentiator for a project when this situation arises. 

Besides, here’s a non-RPA-specific skill often valued when hiring an RPA developer.

12. Cloud Technology Knowledge 

Nowadays, software businesses use cloud infrastructure for implementing their corporate software. Though server configuration on AWS or Azure is not RPA-specific knowledge, such experience is often needed to set up bots in the cloud. 

But, before you put your finger on any RPA developer, one of the most mentioned attributes is RPA certification, which is usually provided by the leading process automation platforms. 

So, let’s examine what it is and why it’s essential. 

What is RPA Certification? 

The RPA industry is becoming exceptionally popular as more companies realize the power of automation. And, with advancements in cognitive automation, the business processes that can be automated are increasing every now and then. This eventually paves the way for the growing interest in RPA technologies and hiring professionals in this domain. 

As a significant part of automation is provided by RPA service providers, RPA certification is an unskippable element needed for employment. 

An RPA certificate is a sign that someone has completed free or paid training on how to work with a specific RPA platform. UiPath is a significant and trusted company that provides training and certification. 

Let’s look at the certification process in-depth to flesh out the types of training offered by UiPath:

UiPath Certification

UiPath is the forerunner in the field of Automation. Its courses sheath every aspect of RPA software, including business analysis aspects. 

The certification process in the UiPath Academy recommends learning different parts of its platform, like the orchestrator tool, UiPath Studio, data manipulation, and many more. 

Source: Google

These courses offer general RPA knowledge training and basic RPA infrastructure experience. 

UiPath Certification is classified into two categories:

• UiPath Certified RPA Associate (UiRPA)

This is a learning program for junior RPA experts in any role. These consist of RPA developers, RPA architects (solution architects) and Business Analysts. The certified associates can solve simple automation tasks or even act as members of an automation team led by an Advanced RPA developer. 

• UiPath Certified Advanced RPA Developer (UiARD) 

This is a certification for senior RPA professionals, which excavates the knowledge of the previous course. Advanced RPA developers have the potential to resolve any automation tasks and also lead the automation initiative in the company. 

The course includes working with RPA platforms, developing bots, and setting up the corresponding infrastructure.

Must Read: UiPath: Everything You Need To Know!

Automation Anywhere 

Automation Anywhere divides its courses based according to role-specific skills, recommending three types of training:

• Bot developer
• Citizen developer
• Business analyst

The Automation Anywhere Certification process classifies into three categories:

• Essentials RPA certifications for students
• Automation Anywhere certified master RPA professional
• Automation Anywhere certified advanced RPA professional 

Blue Prism 

Blue Prism is an educational platform for RPA developers focusing on cognitive automation. The courses include the imperatives of Blue Prism platform RPA development with infrastructure management. 

Blue Prism certification consists of six types of certificates:

• Developer
• Professional developer
• Solution designer
• Installation architect
• Technical Architect
• Robotic operating model architect

Now, you might ask why certification is necessary and why you should be concerned with it. 

Why is RPA Certification Important?

Certification is another way to validate an applicant's competence level from an employer's standpoint. These types of courses don’t cover general software development skills. Rather, they lay a firm foundation for getting RPA-specific knowledge. Even in some cases with UiPath, coding is not obligatory to create bots. 

Yet, another reason RPA certification matters for the employer is the focus on a specific RPA platform. 

Just as a quick rundown of the idea, such training includes an extensive knowledge base on developing RPA and designing workflows on specific platforms. So, if you plan to use UiPath as your primary automation software, you should pay attention to your partnered RPA developer certification. 

In a Nutshell, the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) market has heated up as enterprises increasingly look up to RPA bots to accomplish their long-term automation ambitions. 

For this reason, companies are employing RPA developers. Unfortunately, though, the supply and availability of the best RPA developers don’t meet demand. So, it’s essential to consult an experienced automation service provider like YTII to hire the best RPA developers. 

FAQs Related to RPA Developers 

Qn 1: What Makes a Good RPA Developer?

Basic workflow skills are an important aspect for an RPA developer. 

Also, RPA developers need to create a Process Definition Document (PDD) that defines each step and produce a flowchart showing the step-by-step sequence, so documentation skills are vitally important for communicating their design to others in their team.

Qn 2: What Skills are Required for an RPA Developer?

The 7 crucial RPA developer skills are as follows:

• Coding skills. "Many RPA platforms are built on Microsoft. 
• Knowledge of the technology environment. 
• Business process knowledge. 
• Process mapping skills. 
• Change management capabilities. 
• Data analytics experience. 
• Experience with RPA platforms.

Qn 3: What is the Role of the UiPath Developer?

Identifying and designing business processes for automation is the primary role of the UiPath developer. Besides, setting up, testing, and monitoring automated workflows to ensure that business processes function at optimum efficiency without the risk of error.