Supporting Subject Matter Experts as Developers: Towards a Framework for Decentralized Robotic Process Automation Development

Abstract

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has emerged as promising automation technology in recent years. Firms seize RPA for fast and cost-efficient low-code process automation implemented and maintained decentrally in the business units by subject matter experts (SMEs) without IT development experience. However, decentralized RPA projects are reported to frequently fail and be prone to challenges as SMEs struggle to meet their new roles and responsibilities, such as developers or testers. Yet, research lacks an understanding of how challenges related to SMEs' roles and responsibilities unfold and how to address these challenges when executing decentralized RPA projects. To this end, our study employs a Design Science Research approach, drawing on literature and 14 expert interviews, to (1) systematically synthesize the challenges related to SMEs' roles and responsibilities and (2) derive a software development framework for supporting SMEs in their new roles and responsibilities in decentralized RPA projects. Thus, our study contributes to RPA and low-code development research and provides SMEs with guidelines to navigate decentralized RPA projects in practice.