Managing Bots Using Automation 360 Control Room - Step List

Introduction to the Course

The HR department of a leading fashion retail company conducts bonus calculation for employees in
each department every quarter. To do this, the HR team calculates the bonus of more than 1000
employees in Finance department by applying various complex formulas. The bonus calculation
process has been automated by creating a bot using Automation Anywhere Enterprise A2019. Since
a single device is processing such huge amount of data, it is taking time to complete the process.

The Workload Management (WLM) feature of the Enterprise Control Room distributes the workload
automatically to a pool of defined Bot Runner devices and thereby, ensuring better utilization of the
available devices and parallel processing of the data in a CSV or Excel file.

This course provides the steps to define WLM to help the HR team to process the data within
minutes.

Introduction
This demo will help you to perform the workload automation in Enterprise A2019 Control Room.

Objective
In this demo, you will learn the steps to execute a bot with queue across multiple Bot Runner devices
using the Workload feature, which includes:
• Creating workload queue
• Creating workload bot
• Creating Device pool
• Running bot with queue

Prerequisites
You need to:
• Download the BonusCalculation.csv provided in the courses.
• Have the following users and roles created in the Enterprise Control Room instance on which
WLM will be performed.

User Roles Description

• AAE_Basic
Bot Creator Creates WLM Bot
• User
• AAE_Basic
Bot Runner Runs WLM Bot
• User
• AAE_Queue_Admin
Queue_Pool_admin • AAE_Pool_Admin Creates queue, device pool and
• User runs bot with queue

• Ensure the devices that will be part of a Device pool are connected to the Control Room.
• Assign a connected device to the Bot Runner user.

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1. Creating workload queue

a. Define workload queue properties

i. Login to Automation 360 Control Room as Queue_Pool_admin user in the Log in
window.
Note: If you are logging in as queue admin for the first time, you need to reset your
password.
ii. Go to Manage tab from the Control Room Dashboard.
iii. Navigate to the Queues page.
iv. Click Create queue in the Queues page.
v. Enter a queue name, BonusCalc_Queue, under General settings.
vi. Optionally, enter a description that reflects what the queue will achieve. For example,
the Bonus Calculation Queue will process employee’s bonus for a quarter.
vii. Set the threshold value to resume queue processing in the Reactivation Threshold
field. Optionally, select the average time that a person would need to complete one
work item in seconds, minutes, hours, or days. This is to calculate the Service Level
Agreement (SLAs).
Note: A queue is processed until all work items are completed. When new work items
are added to the queue, the Reactivation Threshold value specifies the minimum
number of new work items required to resume queue processing. For example, if the
Reactivation Threshold is set to 10, until there are at least 10 work items in the queue,
the queue will not start processing the work items in the queue. The default threshold
is 1.

b. Add owners, participants, and consumer

i. Click Next or click the OWNERS in the Create Queue page.
Note: Owners are those who can edit queue properties and add work items to the
queue. A queue creator is the default queue owner and you cannot remove the queue
creator.
ii. Select one or more owners from the Available users list and move them to the
Selected user list by clicking the right-arrow.
iii. Click Next or click the PARTICIPANTS tab.
Note: Participants are those who can add and view work items of the queue but cannot
edit the queue properties.
iv. Select the User role from the Available roles list.
Note: It is recommended that you use the Search field to look for a particular entity on
the page to save time.
v. Click the right-arrow button.
vi. Click Next or click the CONSUMERS tab.
Note: Consumers are those who can view work items and queue. However, they can
use the queues to run bots.
vii. Select the User role from the Available roles list.
viii. Click the right-arrow button.
Note: Assigning participant and consumer roles to the queue is optional.

c. Define work item structure

i. Click the DEFINE WORK ITEM STRUCTURE tab.

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 Note: This involves adding header columns to the queue. You can choose to add the
header columns to the queue either from an excel file, work item template or
manually. Remember that the workflow to process work items differs for a queue
based on the method that you choose in this tab.
ii. In this case, select the Use an Excel/CSV option to use the header columns defined in
an excel file to structure the work items in the queue.
iii. Click Browse and navigate to the folder that contains the Bonus CSV file in the Open
window.
iv. Select the Bonus.csv file and click Open in the Open window.
v. Click Next or click the WORK ITEMS STRUCTURE tab to select the columns that should
be included in the queue.
vi. Enter a unique name for the work item structure. For example,
BonusCalculation_data.
vii. Select the columns for inclusion in the Work Item structure from the list of column
names. For this:
viii. Select the Show in Control Room option for Sl No, Employee ID, First Name,
Last Name, Individual Rating, Organization performance factor, Base Salary,
Bonus and to view these columns being processed in the Activity page.
ix. Select the Number data type from the drop-down list under Data Type column
for SL No, Individual Rating, Organization performance factor, Base Salary, and
Bonus.
Note: The columns are defined based on the header rows of the selected Excel or
CSV file. A maximum of ten (10) columns are allowed for selection and viewing in
the Control Room.
x. Select the Sl No column from the Step 3 drop-down list.
xi. Select the Ascending option to sort the Bonus result based on Sl No in an
ascending order.

d. Add work items

i. Click Next or click the Add Work Item tab to add the work items from the required
excel or CSV file to the queue.
ii. Click Browse and navigate to the folder that contains the Bonus CSV file.
iii. Select the Bonus_Calc.csv file and click Open in the Open window.
iv. Click Create Queue.
You have successfully defined the queue structure and added work items to it. With this, you have
successfully completed the first step of creating the workload queue in the workload automation
process.

2. Creating workload bot

a. Define Workload Template for Bot

i. Log out as queue pool admin and log in as a Bot Creator user.
Note: If you are logging in as bot creator user for the first time, you need to reset your
password.
ii. Go to the Automation tab in the Control Room browser window.
iii. Either click Create a Bot or click Create New.
iv. Provide a suitable name for the bot. For example, BonusCalculation_WLM.

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 v. Confirm the Bot folder path and click Create and Edit. This opens the Bot Editor
window.
vi. Click the Actions menu next to Close and select Work item template to define a
workload template for the bot.
vii. Select the BonusCalculation_data workload template from the list of templates and
click the right arrow to confirm.
viii. Click Save after reviewing the columns the list of columns included in the template.
ix. Click Return to editor to create the bot.

b. Define Bonus Calculation Actions in the Bot

i. Create number type variable each for Individual Rating, Base Salary, Organization
performance factor and Bonus to process the column values. To do this, in the Bot
Editor panel, click Variables.
ii. Click the Create variable or + icon.
iii. Enter a suitable name, for example, Rating in the Name field in the Create variable
window.
iv. Select Number from the String drop-down list.
v. Click Create to save the variable.
vi. Similarly, create the remaining three number type variables.
vi.1. Salary
vi.2. Performance
vi.3. Bonus
vii. Click Actions and enter Number in the Search field then, press Enter.
viii. Expand the Number action and drag and drop the Assign command to the List editor.
ix. Press F2 or click Insert variable in the Select the source string variable/value field.
x. Select the workitem variable from the drop-down list in the Insert a value window.
xi. Click By name and select Individual Rating from the drop-down lists.
xii. Click Yes, insert.
xiii. Select the Rating variable from the Select the destination number variable drop-
down list.
xiv. Click Save.
xv. Similarly, use the Assign command to assign Basic salary to Salary and Organization
Performance Factor to Performance.
xvi. After assigning Organization performance factor, Salary and Ratings to the required
number variables, again, drag and drop the Assign action to the canvas.
xvii. Press F2 or click Insert variable in the Select the source string variable field.
xviii. Select the variable Ratings from the drop-down list in the Insert a value window.
Confirm the values in the Insert a value window.
xix. Click Yes, insert.
xx. Insert asterisk, *, next to “Rating” in the Select the source string variable field.
xxi. Again, press F2 or click Insert variable to insert the “Salary” variable and then insert
* in the Select the source string variable field.
xxii. Again, press F2 or click Insert variable to insert the “Performance” variable in the
Select the source string variable field. The value in the Select the source string
variable field should display Rating*Salary*Performance, which is the formula to
calculate the Bonus.

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 xxiii. Select Bonus - from the drop-down list in the Select the destination number variable
field.
xxiv. Click Save.
xxv. Drag and drop the “To string” action to the canvas.
xxvi. Press F2 or click Insert variable in the Enter a number field.
xxvii. Select Bonus from the drop-down list in the Insert variable window.
xxviii. Click Yes, insert.
xxix. Select the WorkItemResult variable from the drop-down list in the Assign the output
to variable field.
xxx. Click Save.
xxxi. Enter Message in the Search field under Actions.
xxxii. Drag and drop the Message box action to the canvas.
xxxiii. Press F2 or click Insert variable in the Enter a message to display field.
xxxiv. Select WorkItemResult from the drop-down list in the Insert a value window.
xxxv. Click Yes, insert.
xxxvi. Click Save.
xxxvii. Click Close to close the bot.

c. Move bot from the Public Workspace to the Private Workspace

Note: To allow queue and pool admins to execute the bot with queue, you need to move the
bot from your Private workspace to the Public Workspace.
i. Click Automation and click the Private tab.
ii. Locate the workload bot you created, hover over the Actions menu for the bot and
then click Check In Task Bot.
iii. Enter the reason for the moving the task bot in the Comment field.
iv. Click Check In. The bot is now available in the Public tab of the Automation page.

With this, you have successfully created the workload bot to calculate the bonus of each employee
and moved the bot to the Public repository.

3. Creating Device pool

a. Logout as Bot Creator and login to the Control Room as a user with AAE Pool admin role. In
this case, q_Pool_admin user.
b. Go to Manage and click Device pools.
c. Click the Create device pool icon in the Device pools page.
d. Enter a suitable device pool name, for example, HRAutomation_pool that will process all HR-
related automations on Unattended Bot Runners from the HR department.
e. Select the required Unattended Bot Runner or Bot Runners from the Available bot runners
list.
f. Click the right-arrow button.
Note: Remember that the Unattended Bot Runners that are a part of other device pools cannot
be selected and are disabled for selection.
g. Click Next or click the Owners tab.
h. Select the required users in the Available users list and click the right-arrow button.
Note: By default, the device pool creator is selected as the owner of the pool and you cannot
remove the device pool creator.
i. Click Next or click the Consumers tab.
j. Select the required roles in the Available roles list and click the right-arrow button.
Note: This is an optional step.

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 k. Click Create device pool. The new device pool for which you have consumer privileges are
listed in the Device pools page.

With this, you have successfully created the device pool to execute the Work Items in the queue.

4. Running bot with queue

a. Run the workload bot with queue

i. Click Run bot and select Run bot with queue… in the Device pools page.
ii. Select the desired task bot to run with the queue.
iii. Click Next or click the Queue tab.
iv. Select the queue, BonusCalculation_Queue in the Queues table and click the right-
arrow button.
v. Click Next or click the Run As tab.
vi. Select a Bot Runner(s) from the Available bot runners list and click the right-arrow
button.
vii. Click Next or click the Device Pool tab.
viii. Select HRAutomation_pool in the Available device pools list and click the right-arrow
button.
ix. Click Run bot with queue to execute the workload automation.
Note: Observe that the queue status changes to “In use” on the Queues page. This
means that the queue is active and is processing the work items.
x. The Bot Runner device starts to process the work items sequentially and displays the
Bonus in the message box for processed work item. Click Close each time the message
box displays the bonus amount for each employee.

b. View and Analyze Workload Automation

i. Hover over Bonus Calculation Queue and select View queue in the Actions menu.
Note: The View page displays all the work items that are processed, currently being
processed and those that are yet to be processed in the Work Item table.
iii. Click Edit to go to the Edit queue page. Edit the name and description of the queue, if
needed.
ii. Click View Automation in the view page to know which work items are being
processed on each bot runner device and the number of work items that failed,
pending, or completed processing.
Note: In the View Automation page, you can view:
• The name of the bot being executed.
• The Queue used to run the automation.
• The Bot Runner details such as username, device, and user status.
• The device pool in use to run the automation.
• The work items that are active, failed, pending, or completed processing.
iv. On the Work Item page, you can view details about the work items.
v. Click the Edit work item icon to go to the editing page for that work item. Various options
for editing are available here.

Congratulations! You have now successfully performed the Workload automation process.