Day 6 - Governance, Scheduling & Monitoring
The goal is to learn how to manage, schedule, and monitor automations responsibly - applying proper governance, approvals, and visibility across your RPA environment.
1. Understanding RPA Governance
Governance defines how automations are created, changed, and maintained in a controlled way.
Good governance ensures:
Consistency across developers and clients
Secure, approved deployments
Easy rollback when something breaks
Full audit trails for compliance
Think of it as "rules for robots" - ensuring that every automation behaves predictably and safely.
Governance in Automize
Automize provides several built-in mechanisms for control:
| Feature | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Process Environments | Separate DEV, TEST, STAGING, and PROD versions of each process. |
| Version History | Tracks all saved versions with timestamps and authors. |
| User Roles | Define who can edit, test, or deploy. |
| Audit Trail | Logs all process changes and executions. |
Best Practices
Always work in DEV first - never edit live production processes.
Use version numbers in your process names or notes (e.g., InvoiceProcessor_v1.2).
Document every change - note what changed, why, and by whom.
Use approvals before promoting a process to PROD.
Keep test data separate from live client data.
2. Version Control & Change Management
Creating a New Version
Open your process in the Automize Web Portal.
Click Save As → New Version.
Add notes describing your change.
Select Environment: DEV.
Test thoroughly before publishing to TEST or PROD.
Never overwrite production versions directly.
Change Log Example
| Version | Date | Change | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 05 Nov 2025 | Initial release | Jane Doe |
| 1.1 | 07 Nov 2025 | Added exception handling | John Smith |
| 1.2 | 12 Nov 2025 | Optimised Excel loop | Jane Doe |
3. Scheduling Automations
Automize supports scheduled bot runs, allowing processes to execute automatically without user input.
Why Scheduling Matters
Enables unattended automations
Ensures consistency (e.g., daily reports, nightly reconciliations)
Reduces manual trigger dependency
Creating a Schedule
Open the Automize Web Portal → Schedules.
Click New Schedule.
Choose your process and bot.
Set frequency - Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Custom (CRON).
Define start date/time and optional end date.
Save and activate.
Success Criteria:The process executes automatically according to schedule, and results appear in the run log.
Best Practices for Scheduling
Avoid overlapping runs of the same process.
Leave buffer time between scheduled tasks.
Use DEV or TEST environments for new schedules before promoting.
Add logging at the start/end of each scheduled process for traceability.
Document every schedule (owner, purpose, frequency).
4. Monitoring and Alerts
Monitoring keeps your automation landscape healthy and transparent.
What to Monitor
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Run Status | Success, Failed, Skipped |
| Duration | Total runtime per process |
| Error Trends | Number and type of exceptions |
| Bot Utilisation | How often each bot is active |
| Success Rate | Ratio of successful runs over total runs |
Where to View Monitoring Data
Bot Dashboard: Real-time local runs.
Web Portal → Process History: Full logs and trends.
Email Notifications: Configure alerts for success/failure.
Setting Up Alerts
Navigate to Settings → Notifications.
Add your email or Microsoft Teams channel.
Choose triggers:
Process Failed
Process Completed
Schedule Started
Save changes.
Goal: Receive an email when a process fails - with log details and timestamp.
5. Hands-On Exercises
Exercise 1 - Governance Setup
Open one of your DEV processes.
Save it as version 2.0 with notes describing the change.
Move it to TEST environment and run once.
Once successful, promote to PROD.
You have followed the full change-management lifecycle.
Exercise 2 - Create a Schedule
Choose your Calculator or Excel automation.
Set a daily 09:00 schedule.
Verify the process runs automatically at the next trigger time.
Review logs under Process History.
Automation now runs unattended.
Exercise 3 - Monitoring & Alerts
Enable email alerts for failed runs.
Deliberately introduce a small error (e.g., wrong selector).
Wait for the process to fail and confirm alert delivery.
Monitoring and alerting successfully validated.
6. Industry-Standard Governance Principles
These are standard across major RPA platforms:
| Principle | Description |
|---|---|
| Segregation of Environments | Separate DEV, TEST, PROD strictly. |
| Version Discipline | Never overwrite live versions; archive all releases. |
| Access Control | Restrict who can edit or deploy. |
| Auditability | Maintain complete history of changes and runs. |
| Incident Management | Have a standard procedure for logging and resolving issues. |
7. Best Practices Summary
Always document every change and reason.
Use schedules to automate recurring tasks, but monitor them regularly.
Review logs weekly for failed runs or performance drops.
Never move processes to PROD without peer review.
Treat governance as part of quality assurance, not an afterthought.
End of Day 6 Summary
By completing Day 6, you should now be able to:
✅ Manage process versions and environments responsibly✅ Create and manage schedules for unattended automation✅ Monitor bots and interpret key performance metrics✅ Configure alerts for proactive issue management✅ Apply governance standards used across the RPA industry
Next Step - Day 7
Learn advanced data manipulation and logic design - including loops, formulas, and dynamic decision making using Automize's built-in calculation engine.