What Is Automation? Complete Guide to Automation

Project managers are increasingly relying on software and third-party app integrations to automate processes, prevent minor mistakes, and avoid the sort of busywork that may divert attention away from more important responsibilities that require human interaction. Many automation solutions have already been integrated into the main project management software firms’ suites of products, allowing practitioners and their teams to quickly embrace new capabilities. When project managers have access to an increasing number of automation technologies, the difficulty becomes not just understanding when and how to utilize them, but also knowing when not to.Almost all of the best project management solutions claim to help teams scale their efforts, boost predictability, improve communication, and minimize unnecessary administrative work through automation.

What Is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are not used in these native solutions, while corporations are incorporating them into their platforms in other ways. The automation tools presented here are created using conditional templates based on rules, with probable circumstances and resolutions restricted to the programs’ capabilities. They are confined to automating simply the operation of the software, not reproducing or changing information, and are analogous to the most basic, non-GUI-based forms of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) systems.(Doing so necessitates extramural development and programming.) While RPA can be used to transfer data from one system to another and then execute a function — for example, when an accounts receivable system automates invoice creation — project management software automation is used to streamline parts of a system by doing things like updating the status of a task when a subtask is completed or assigning an issue to a specific team member at a specific point in the process.

LiquidPlanner, for example, employs a scheduling engine that determines job completion based on project importance, effort required, and resources available. The program adjusts deadlines based on any changes in workload or project scope after the team begins working.Wrike, too, has an automated engine built in that reminds users of future due dates and advances completed tasks to the next level. According to Kuleen Mehta, Wrike’s Lead Product Manager of AI/ML, the firm also offers a large library of customisable templates that “enable users of any level to design automation rules.” “No prior coding knowledge is necessary.”

Atlassian’s Jira, the most widely used project management software, has a large library of prebuilt rules that may be used as templates for new projects. There is a basic, no-code form that allows users to design their own rules for those who wish to start from scratch.

We chatted with a number of project managers to get their thoughts on Jira. They informed us what duties they automate the most and what responsibilities they believe should be left to humans while exploring new paths for the future of automation in project management.

Jira Automation

The COVID-19 epidemic heightened the demand for simple remote collaboration solutions and provided new chances for project management software vendors to grow product adoption. Atlassian has already been attempting to dispel Jira’s image as a complicated, nonintuitive application with a high learning curve for the typical user, and automation has played a key role in that effort.

Atlassian bought Code Barrel in October 2019 and integrated its popular Automation for Jira into its cloud service in March 2020. Jira Work Management, which will be released in 2021, is an attempt to transform Jira, which is primarily known for software development and IT service management, into a one-stop shop for other teams and departments, including marketing, human resources, finance, and design.

Jira’s automation building elements are straightforward. Triggers, conditions, and actions make up automation rules. Choose a trigger: This is the event that initiates the rule (the “when”). Select a condition: This is a condition that must be satisfied in order for the rule (the “if”) to continue to run. Choose an action: This is what puts the rule into action by carrying out a specified activity (the “then”).

Users may construct basic automation rules for vital but time-consuming tasks using triggers, conditions, and actions. When all of a parent task’s subtasks have been finished, a parent task may be closed off using Jira automation. When done manually, this process — searching Jira for all open tickets, reviewing the progress of each task and subtask, following up with each person involved, and then marking off and closing the parent issue — can take a long time.

Instead, users may utilize Atlassian’s library to choose an automated rule and tell Jira to send an email when it’s completed. Parent items will complete and shut themselves as long as team members tick off subtasks as they accomplish them.An automated rule like this might make project managers’ workflows more efficient and the development process more transparent. Team members are more motivated to keep up with the state of their work if problems update and shut on their own as long as subtasks are ticked off.

Patricio Tillard, a Toptal project manager based in Cordoba, Argentina, says, “One of the greatest pain issues I have on daily standups is developers not updating the status of their work.” “Now I know that the parent card is up to date as long as they keep updating things to a more granular level.”This regulation, however, proved ineffective for Toptal project manager Nina Djokovic’s team in Belgrade, Serbia. “The aggregate of all subtasks wasn’t always a whole task,” she explains. There was always something new to work on,” she explained, forcing her to revisit closed projects in order to follow up on them before manually closing them.

These disparate field experiences illustrate an essential lesson: Before adopting automation rules, every team and project manager must thoroughly understand their product and workflow. If not, features designed to save time and effort may have the opposite effect.

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Benefit of Automation

Tillard thinks the finest automation systems keep work flowing and communication “very frictionless, transparent, and up-to-date.” “You don’t have to automate the entire process, but you can obtain a new sort of productivity for your team if you can take away the minor, boring tasks.”

Michael Reda, a Toptal project manager located in Colorado Springs, agrees. He, like Tillard, seeks to automate activities related with reporting on completed work, particularly for developers. “I want the developer to concentrate on software development,” he explains. “I don’t want them to finish a narrative and then report that they finished it,” says the author.

To make things easy for his engineers, Tillard automates reminders: “We have a checklist that asks you, ‘Have you released the material associated with this story?’ Are you finished with your pull request? ‘Is this your merger?’

Automation may be utilized to streamline the process of producing more thorough documentation of issues and remedies, in addition to relieving the irritation of daily task reporting. “Whenever you can relieve your developers of documentation chores,” Tillard explains, “they will always give you a high five.”His development team added custom JavaScript to migrate data from Jira to a prebuilt template in Confluence, automating a phase in the process that required the generation of thorough documentation for code bugs and bug fixes.

Automation can help to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing in this way. “Another team can start up where you left off, and you’ve already handled much of the communication,” Tillard adds, if you combine solid documentation with well-written user stories. There may be a few unanswered questions, but the broad picture is clear.”

Outside of working groups and between teams, automation can assist increase communication. “Connecting teams who are probably not working side by side every day,” Tillard explains, by automating status updates, checklists, and documentation procedures. A service desk ticket can be “synchronized” with one on the software side. As a result, when one team advances a card to code review, the service desk agents see the status matched to their own workflow.”

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Some Limits

Jira’s automation features are situational and situation-specific. Despite widespread fears that automation and artificial intelligence (AI) would decimate the workforce, this sort of automation will not eliminate project management employment; rather, it will transform how people execute those professions. While just 5% of jobs can be totally automated, roughly one-third of individual activities in most occupations can be mechanized, according to McKinsey & Company. While there are many project management chores that lend themselves to automation, Jira and other applications have their limitations. The automated rule must be precise and well-defined. Someone must have a thorough understanding of the project, the team, and the product in order to build up automatic rules that are advantageous.

Project managers that are savvy understand the value of using their people abilities. Despite the fact that bots can now undertake certain activities that need interpersonal interactions, such as daily standups, the project managers we spoke with advised against deploying them. “I believe you lose something each time you start looking at automating anything where you’re replacing some interaction,” Reda says.

Automation should enhance procedures while leaving room for creative problem-solving, relationship-building, and new thinking. “Our objective is to save time by automating laborious or repetitive tasks,” says Wrike’s Mehta. We want project managers to be able to focus on the areas of their jobs that are the most gratifying, creative, and interpersonal.”

FAQ

Can Project management be automated?

While normal operations like repute monitoring and updates can be computerized the usage of the easy good judgment guidelines to be had in maximum undertaking control software, undertaking control is a completely human-centric and relationship-pushed profession because of its interpersonal focus.

What is jira for?

Jira is a mission control device this is frequently used within-side the software program improvement industry. It can be used to prepare initiatives and improvement sprints, maintain music of crew progress, manipulate releases, and convey reviews that music productiveness and crew effectiveness.

What types of automation exist?

— Industrial automation

— Home automation

— Business process automation

— Robotic process automation

— Hard automation

— Programmable automation

Is automation expensive?

Large-scale automation is more expensive, time-consuming, and risky than small-scale automation.The example of self-driving cars is relevant here: a consortium of 30 businesses has invested 16 billion dollars on self-driving vehicle research and development in recent years. Only three businesses spent half of that money: Waymo, Uber, and GM Cruise.Generally, no, although it depends on the task you’re attempting to automate. A few of dozen tasks? It’s not too pricey. A multi-layered, complicated e-commerce system? Dorothy, fasten your seatbelts.

What does an automation professional do?

Within a company, an automation professional reviews and improves workflows and procedures. This includes the planning, development, and management of app integrations.

However, there might be considerable disparities amongst automation experts. Some people, including me, are amateurs who utilize automation to make their life easier. Others are full-fledged professionals, career engineers with great dreams and even larger heads.

Will automation kill jobs?

There is no question that automation threatens a substantial number of employment.

Manual jobs such as driving, manufacturing, and warehousing, among others, are at risk from Big Automation. It’s no surprise that thought leaders from all sides of the political spectrum are concerned about the consequences of large-scale, intricate automation.Small automation, on the other hand, focuses on removing human error rather than human error. It doesn’t so much replace our duties as it does our methods of completing them.

In conclusion, Higher production rates and productivity, more efficient resource usage, greater product quality, enhanced safety, shorter labor workweeks, and shorter manufacturing lead times are all benefits typically attributed to automation. Higher production and productivity have been two of the most compelling arguments for using automation. Despite promises of excellent quality from human craftsmanship, automated systems often complete the production process with less variability than human employees, resulting in better product control and consistency. Increased process control also allows for more effective material utilization, resulting in reduced scrap.In this sense, automation is no different. Learning about automation will enable you to properly analyze its nature, the influence it exerts on just about everything, and perhaps also the impact it will have on our lives in the upcoming years.Automation is practical knowledge above all else for business owners, managers, and decision-makers.If this is the case, I strongly advise you to study up on automation — whether it’s marketing automation, e-commerce automation, or industrial automation — understanding the details will provide you with new perspectives and a fresh perspective on how your company may profit from it.