As the request for digitalization continues to grow at an accelerated rate, more and more CIOs are putting low-code technology at the top of their priority list given the inherent strategic benefit it has in improving operational efficiency and accelerating digital transformation projects. All without requiring too much time or money invested in the development process.
According to TechRepublic research published in June 2021, low-code software development platforms are becoming increasingly popular as businesses strive to streamline workflows and digitalize. Low-code technology is already used in nearly half of the studied enterprises (47%) and one-fifth are planning to adopt a low-code platform within the next 12 months. The majority of respondents use low-code platforms to:
- automate workflows (17%),
- create new apps (15%),
- shorten development time (15%),
- automate data collecting and reporting (15%),
- 0% of respondents mentioned reducing the burden on developers.
Gartner analysts also expect that by 2025, 70% of new enterprise apps would be built using minimal or no-code technologies, up from below 25% in 2020, as low-code has evolved to offer immediate and very high impact in enterprises.
This growing popularity of low-code development platforms is unsurprising, as they put process innovation tools in the hands of problem solvers, and both non-developers and developers are seeing an increase in the sophistication of the apps they can create using low-code approaches.
And as more businesses discover what is possible with low-code development, the adoption of these tools will not only continue to grow but it will also become more structured.
So, let’s look at 3 different low-code development approaches the LCP Market has contoured and the main things every CIO should know about them when it comes to adopting a low-code platform to drive their digital transformation strategy.
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IT centric low-code development platforms
Designed for skilled developers to make their jobs easier and faster. They were a big hit once developers figured them out. They have built-in development, testing, production, licensing, and data governance. The tools are built on well-known development principles and can be used to construct various apps.
But this is also their downfall, at least from a business point of view. Because line-of-business stakeholders are unfamiliar with the tools, their involvement in the development process is generally limited to translating requirements. Resulting in a single-threaded delivery model where developers need to comprehend business requirements, generate a technical specification, and then go through blueprinting budgeting development user acceptance testing (UAT), go live, and then modify requests resuming the process. Businesses also struggled to grasp what was going on "behind the scenes," leaving them unable to assess how the application "behaved" in connection to their original business requirements. This is because they can't see what they're dealing with and in the end this slows down the development cycle.
In this category I identified the following low-code platforms:
- Pega
- Agilepoint
- Unqork
- Caspio
- Aura Quantic
- Low-code development platforms for citizen developers
Low-code platforms for citizen developers can be used to produce low to mid-complexity applications for 12-24 users inside an organization to achieve a certain goal, ideal for start-ups. Anyone who understands the business subject matter can build and change it fast.
However, because these solutions are designed for small workgroups, they often lacked the scalability and interoperability required for big user communities, complicated technological environments, and enterprise deployments. They either hit severe limits or required extensive technical intervention from a range of technical disciplines to try and extend what wasn't inherent to the tool itself.
Low-code platforms posed new issues for enterprises and IT professionals entrusted with assuring governance over application deployment and business utility. Many strengths we see in the IT centric low-code platforms, such as numerous staging environments, access rights, data for technical and business audits, important security features, license control, and on-premises deployment choices are frequently absent from their core set of functionalities. It’s no surprise that many IT professionals are still hesitant of implementing these toolsets.
In this category I identified the following low-code platforms:
- PowerApps
- Betty Blocks
- Creatio
- Kissflow
3.Low-code development platforms for collaboration
Low-code platforms developed for collaboration combine the best of both types of platforms listed above, allowing enterprises to build simple to complex apps that expand from dozens to thousands of users and transactions.
They include all the controls and functionalities required for enterprise governance while also fostering a more collaborative environment in which subject matter experts can contribute to the development of a software application, understand what is being built as it is being built, and contribute in a way that is intuitive to their specific expertise.
With low-code platforms built for collaboration, it is possible to have the business stakeholder work on aspects of the build that align with their expertise (automation flows, data models, UI design), while leaving the technical aspects (integrations, access control, staging environments, technical audits) to the IT subject matter experts. This eliminates business and IT silos and enable faster time to value for both parties. Enterprises can have technical and business teams working together on a same platform for a common goal.
It's business-grade, has built-in governance, is intuitive for all users, and can scale quickly from departmental to corporate apps and it meets the needs of today's time-pressed, multi-faceted, ever-growing businesses.
In this category I identified the following low-code platforms:
- Aurachain
- Mendix
In 2022, digital transformation will reach new heights, but are we about to make the same software failure mistakes all over again?
The past two years have been a wake-up call for firms without a clear digital transformation strategy. The epidemic has emphasized the necessity for businesses to produce digital apps swiftly and easily adaptive to shifting needs. Businesses needed to change quickly and were looking for more cost-effective and agile solutions, but they must be careful when choosing their low-code approach.
As Jonathan Wiener writes in TechRegister in his article (SEE: Are we about to make the same software failure mistakes all over again?)
“The risk ahead lies in the fact that many of the tools being used in low-code development environments when they divide rather than unite the various specialists in the process. They create ‘fiefdoms’ between tech and business rather than bringing the two sides together into one ‘development conversation.’ On the one hand we hear about developers wanting to retain control of their knowledge (and rightly so in many ways), while trends such as the citizen developer suggest it is OK for non-techies to build their own systems in isolation. It is OK at a basic workflow level, but not when you’re addressing mission-critical problems and enterprise application use. ”
Collaboration should extend beyond teams working together to create a new digital app. It should exist at all stages of the development cycle, from process design to documentation, API design, publication, and app performance analysis. It is a collaborative effort between all essential parties, aided by technology.
When work is 'democratized' among all relevant business and technical subject matter experts, a team can build together within the platform rather than working in isolation on its composite elements. To do so, a platform that is both user-friendly and enterprise-grade – with built-in governance, mission-critical change support, and cloud-native scalability – is required. The good news is that these types of platforms are now available on the LCP Market in the form of collaboration platforms - they are business-grade, have built-in governance, are intuitive for all users, and can scale quickly from departmental to corporate apps, and they meet the needs of today's time-pressed, multi-faceted, ever-growing businesses.