A topic I’ve been reading about a lot lately is the rise of the Citizen Developer.

Citizen Developers leverage low-code/no-code (LCNC) platforms to build applications through visual representations without having to have spent years developing deep coding skills. They’ve become more plentiful as more and more businesses rely on software applications to help automate their processes, helping organizations do more with less.

In essence, Citizen Developers are just non-IT employees who use technology to make work easier and more efficient using platforms designed to create programs using intuitive interfaces and a mouse click, as opposed to having to write lines and lines of code. Enabling Citizen Developers can save companies a lot of money by removing the constraint on IT for low-complexity innovation and helping everyone become more self-sufficient and efficient.

At last week’s SlashData’s DevRe[X] Summit, I learned that the usage of low/no code has doubled in the last 2 years, with 57% of developers reporting the use of LCNC tools.

You can check the full session from Christina Voskoglou, which the data comes from, here.

That is an interesting statistic, as it seems to indicate that these tools are being used not only by Citizen Developers, but are also making their way into “real” developers’ toolboxes (for building prototypes, front end development, etc.).

The reason for this rise in popularity is that there are many pros to the Citizen Developer movement:

• Low-code/no-code platforms allow non-developers to build simple apps with little IT investment, while freeing up corporate developers to focus on key applications.
• They provide pre-existing libraries of components for quick software builds.
• It expands the ability to innovate within the enterprise.
• The platforms allow one to start small, then customize and improve as you go, again without corporate developer interaction.

As you can see, there are a lot of benefits to be had for an organization. However, if you decide you want to provide your employees with low-code/no-code platforms and tools, there are a few things you’ll want to make sure corporate IT is involved with:

• You might need to provide training on simple development concepts and on LCNC tools you selected, and deployed for employees.
• You will need to watch over the data being used by Citizen Devs, to make sure no compliance or privacy rules are broken. Most likely you will need to implement some policy restrictions, which might represent a governance challenge.
• Enabling Citizen Devs can represent a risk to IT sprawl and shadow IT, if not carefully managed.
• It may represent a security risk, as in most case these Citizen Dev-built apps are being used and developed on personal devices, mobile devices and non-corporate Wi-Fi connections.

Read more about it

One article I recently found was very interesting:  How Low-Code Platforms Can Help Cloud Native Developers. Vinothini Raju, who wrote a blog post for the HPE Developer Community last year, reminds us that the rise of no-code platforms isn’t surprising, given that humans have a tendency to process visuals much faster than text. In her article, she explores low-code/no-code platforms for cloud-native deployments. It’s a fascinating article that points out why these platforms are such a boon to cloud-native development. It’s a short read and I highly recommend it.

Hear more about it

HPE is exploring low-code/no-code options as well. In the HPE Developer November 16th Munch & Learn, Jeffrey Fougere, an Innovation Strategist at HPE, Colin Lue King, Talent Management Manager at HPE, and Richard Kerridge, Learning Technology Architecture & Strategy Manager at HPE will come to talk on this subject. They’ll introduce session attendees to some of the popular platforms, like Microsoft Power Aps and Power Automate, and explain how HPE employees themselves have been able to build enterprise-level apps and automations with little-to-no budget. This is a session you’ll not want to miss. Even full-time developers can benefit from learning about these technologies to create full-stack solutions outside of their areas of expertise. There will be a replay posted on the Munch & Learn Technology Talks calendar page once it’s ready.

What’s your experience with low-code/no-code solutions? Other community members could learn a lot from your experience. If you’re a citizen developer, consider contributing a blog post on the subject. The HPE Developer Community team would love to hear more about it.