When it comes to process automation, what can businesses expect in 2022? In this article, Mike Fitzmaurice, chief evangelist and VP of North America, WEBCON, discusses five predictions for process automation in the coming year.
Driven in part by the pandemic and in large measure by changing customer expectations and business needs, companies have been undergoing digital transformation, or at least engaging in digital activity, at an unprecedented clip. Process automation is often a big part of that, and when it comes to processes, workflow, automation, etc., 2022 looks like it will be a busy year.
Digital transformation isn’t about technology. It’s about organizational transformation assisted by technology. Process management is a natural part of that because processes are – literally – how work gets done. Processes are a company’s foundation, and changes to them usually have a profound and visible impact. Digitalizing a process often reaps immediate benefits in the form of auditability and error reduction, even before automating a single step in the process (which will add even more benefits in terms of speed and efficiency). Moreover, process automation is, compared to many other initiatives, easy to implement (which isn’t to say it’s easy to implement well, but more on that in a bit).
Process automation as an activity and a discipline has not been standing still. A number of things are likely to happen in the next 12 to 24 months:
1. Low-code/No-code Adoption Will Skyrocket – But Not Where You Think
Low-code/no-code (LC/NC) is the use of tools that allow users to stitch together applications more by selecting/configuring components than by typing in free-form instructions. Given the intense demand for new applications and a continued dearth of software development professionals, it’s not surprising that this space will continue to grow rapidly. But that’s an easy prediction.
What isn’t so obvious is that its real increase in adoption won’t be where many people expect. Organizations have tried to put these tools in the hands of power users with the expectation that they’ll be able to do their own application development without involving IT at all. That doesn’t appear to be working out as well as it was hoped. In the meantime, if organizations can’t hire more professional developers, and if they see real limitations to non-developer work, the only remaining solution is to increase productivity. The beauty of LC/NC tools is that, in the hands of professionals, they can yield even greater benefits in output and consistent quality than they could in the hands of non-professionals. LC/NC vendors are taking note and shifting to meet enterprise needs for scaling, security, deployment, continuity, reporting, monitoring and change management.
2. An End to Citizen Development?
As touched on already, enterprises have expected power users (a.k.a. citizen developers) to step into the gap of available professionals. It’s an idea that has been in place for more than a decade, and while it’s had limited success, it’s proven to be quite fragile. Simply put, the resulting applications are of limited utility (citizen developers often focus on solving their problems, not those of the organization) and thus can’t be widely shared. Moreover, even when successful, the applications lack the professional underpinnings and integrations necessary to grow long term. When organizations can’t depend on a solution, they’ll no longer embrace it.Â
I already mentioned a pivot toward the adoption of low-code tools by professional application builders as opposed to citizen developers. What I think will also happen is an increase in citizen-assisted development, where power tools help power users with the design and specifications phase of a project and help professionals with the development phase. The goal is to reduce meetings, negotiations, and time spent in explanation and clarification. If a common design language can be shared between stakeholders and builders, everything can happen more quickly and predictably.
See More: Why a Data-Centric Approach Falls Flat for Businesses Processes
3. RPA (Robotic Process Automation) Will Face a Reckoning
I hate to nit-pick, but there’s no such thing as robotic process automation. What vendors really offer is robotic task automation, the automation of a very specific activity and not a broader process. That’s not to say that it’s not valuable or that it won’t continue to be wildly successful. What will happen is that organizations will realize that they’re demanding more of the technology than it can give. What we’ll see more of in the coming year is organizations combining RPA and digital process automation, where RPA is a piece of the puzzle to more broadly achieve digital transformation.
4. Content Management Will Start To evolve Beyond Mere Versioning and SharingÂ
The coming year will represent a pivot point for most organizations when it comes to content management. For too long, CM has been about making content shareable and accessible: centralizing content, organizing it, and allowing real-time collaboration. But expecting magic to happen when you bring everyone and everything together is a pipe dream. For digital transformation to happen, content needs to be put to work as part of larger process management and automation initiatives. Organizations are coming to the realization that content represents potential, but it’s the process that represents productivity.
5. Waterfall Development Still Won’t Die
This is a prediction that doesn’t make me happy, but that doesn’t make it untrue. Waterfall development embodies the idea that software creation moves through a series of sequential steps, with each completed before the next begins. These days, it’s usually regarded as antiquated thinking. Many organizations are rapidly embracing different methodologies that focus more on continuous improvement and continuous development/deployment (i.e., agile development). But that uptake in agile methodologies has been mostly in commercial software development. Maybe some in-house corporate development in long-term ongoing projects, too.
But when organizations hire outside consultants and demand fixed price, fixed-term projects, they’re effectively demanding waterfall development, so expect waterfall to be kept around for the foreseeable future.Â
That’s unfortunate for process automation, as processes should be in a state of continuous evaluation and evolution. A waterfall-built process can, ironically, quickly become a hindrance to innovation. The hope is that organizations commissioning waterfall creation of solutions adopt an agile maintenance approach in-house once they’ve taken delivery of such applications.
In Conclusion
Whether or not each of these predictions is borne out, 2022 promises to be a banner year for process automation in particular and digital transformation writ large. I, for one, can’t wait.
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