Microbots have two basic uses - process-specific and generic. While process-specific Microbots represent a sub-process that occurs only in a specific process, the focus of generic Microbots is on reuse in loops, later in the same process or even in other processes.
Process-Specific
Process-specific Microbots should reflect the building blocks in the process diagram and, if available, include generic Microbots to take advantage of reusability.
Generic
Generic Microbots have the goal of being reused in another process.
A Microbot should always perform only one specific task, such as filling out a form or creating a ticket. As in classical programming, the size of Microbots should be as small as possible and as large as necessary. The more complex a Microbot becomes, the more error-prone and specific it will be.
At the beginning of each Microbot, there should be a check of the arguments passed. If there are no mandatory variables, start the check at the beginning. Use optional variables only if they are valid and present. In other words, optional arguments can be omitted and mandatory arguments can be forced.
It is also essential that the corresponding steps within the Microbot are commented sufficiently to simplify their use. The more structured the Microbot is developed, the less comments are necessary. Generic Microbots should not call any more Microbots to prevent nesting.
Summarized:
- Provide good and detailed comments for other users
- No further scopes (microbots)