Anyone who has been involved in the packaging and testing of applications will understand how laborious the task can be. Automation tools have a transformational impact on the process, as substantial productivity gains are made through automated application packaging, testing, and deployment. That said, fully optimised improvements are only possible when the entire process or workflow is covered rather than tasks in isolation.
This particularly applies to pilot or ring deployment processes, as well as quality assurance (QA) processes and the standards that govern application management in your organisation. Implementing automation tools brings benefits, but problems will arise if those tools can’t fully align with your wider app QA and deployment procedures. Those problems and negative outcomes include:
- Increasing operational and technical risks.
- Reducing productivity (for users and technical resources).
- Damaging the digital user experience (DEX).
- Limiting return on investment, including investments in major IT projects, investments in application packaging and management solutions, or both.
The solution is to not only automate application management tasks, but entire workflows.
Benefits of Automating Application Management Workflows
- Create and retain a complete audit trail, with time and date stamps of key events, such as the repackaging of an application. Visual records can also be recorded and retained, such as screen recordings of apps being smoke tested.
- Ensure application management oversight and compliance standards are adhered to.
- Maintain workflow and process consistency while also increasing transparency and accountability.
- Enhance control with centralised governance of all application management workflows and processes.
- Reduce risks, particularly in relation to risks created by human error.
- Improve the employee experience, not least because you can ensure applications adhere to predefined QA processes and standards, and that they are deployed in a controlled manner.
- Save time and money with increased levels of automation throughout the entire workflow in addition to automating individual tasks.
Access Capture – Your Fully Automated Application Gearbox
Cars with automatic gears are much easier to drive than manual cars as you simply press the accelerator and the gearbox does its thing, changing gears as necessary. Crucially, though, automatic gearboxes don’t just complete the mechanical task of changing the gear – they also automatically decide which gear is best for current driving conditions.
Now imagine you have a car with an automatic gearbox that will automatically change gears, but only after you’ve told it which gear you want. There is still automation as you don’t need to press the clutch or move the gear stick. But it’s task automation, not workflow automation.
What you need in a car is full gearbox workflow automation, and the same applies to application management in your organisation.
Relying on manual intervention to ensure processes are followed and standards are adhered to creates the perfect conditions for mistakes and shortcuts that increase technical and operational risks while also damaging the user experience.
Access Capture is your fully automated application gearbox.
Application Management Workflow Automation Overview
Access Capture can be configured according to your requirements, but a general overview is that it can be set up so that application packaging and deployment jobs can only be marked as complete once all required steps are completed.
Let’s look at a brief example. A user requests an application and Access Capture gets to work on the job, repackaging and smoke testing the app before notifying the user it is ready for UAT testing. Access Capture can then automatically defer the completion of the job, even though the packaging and UAT processes are complete.
This allows the full QA procedure to be worked through before the job is finally marked as complete, with all steps along the way fully documented with date/time stamps, PDF records, and videos. It also ensures full control of pilot or ring deployment processes.
You can see this in action in our blog and video on how to complete user acceptance testing with Access Capture through a ServiceNow integration.
Full Support for Your Application Management Workflows
There are two main takeaways from this blog:
- Access Capture has the capability to fully automate not just application management tasks, but complete workflows.
- You will receive full support from the Access IT Automation team to ensure the configuration of Access Capture is fully aligned with your QA, application deployment, and operational workflows.
To learn more and discuss your application management requirements, please get in touch with us at Access IT Automation today.
