Peter Krause is the author of Democratizing RPA with Power Automate Desktop, we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: What is/are your specialist tech area(s)?
Peter: Dynamics 365 and Power Platform
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
Peter: Automation and integration have always interested and fascinated me especially when it happens across system boundaries. Power Automate Desktop was not as well known at the time, so the request came at the right time.
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Peter: I searched for existing books in the usual portals and also checked the offerings in various social media channels.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Peter: There are always challenges in creating a book like this, whether it’s the timeline or just too much content. My challenge, among others, was to really look at all the components of the software for the reader while not getting too detailed or too superficial.
Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?
Peter: With Power Automate Desktop you learn a concept that is suitable for many repetitive tasks. Today we can already create such an algorithm without programming and in the future we may even be able to do it with voice input. Then it is good to know what is happening here in the background.
Q. Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
Peter: There are numerous tutorials and videos about the technology, but so far no other book that summarizes all concepts and aspects in this way.
Q. What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away from the book with?
Peter: Power Automate Desktop is for anyone who wants to automate tedious and repetitive tasks without programming, and for anyone who wants to incorporate legacy applications into larger integration scenarios.
Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?
Peter: Learning takes place best in practical application. That is why I have included a lot of examples. My top tip: try it out, over and over again.
Q. Can you share any blogs, websites, and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?
Peter: These are some very helpful websites that the readers can learn from: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/introduction and https://powerautomate.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/
Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt?
Peter: The journey was certainly challenging, as of course a timeline is required for book creation. However, the team has always responded flexibly to changes and minor delays, which has made the collaboration very pleasant and productive.
Q. Do you belong to any tech community groups?
Peter: Yes, i belong to this particular one – https://community.dynamics.com/365/dynamics-365-fasttrack/
Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?
Peter: My favorites are – https://powerautomate.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/, https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/, https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/dynamics365/.
Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?
Peter: First, the overall concept and sequence of the individual chapters was determined so that they follow a logical order and build on each other. Then the individual chapters were edited, whereby I never started with the introduction, but wrote it after all sections had been created.
Q. What is the one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
Peter: I think it is important to always put yourself in the reader’s shoes and reflect on whether what has just been written is understandable and comprehensible. Personally, I think it’s important to take the reader on a journey, at the end of which new skills have been built.
Q. Would you like to share your social handles? If so, please share.
Peter: Here you go :- https://www.linkedin.com/in/ms-peterkrause/
You can find Peter’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here
