Introduction to Citizen Development

The business world is constantly evolving, and the need for innovative solutions to solve unique problems is ever-present. Traditionally, these solutions came from the IT department, with professional developers building applications to meet specific needs. However, a new trend is emerging: Citizen Development.

Citizen Developers Defined

Citizen developers are business users within an organization who possess the ability to create applications using low-code/no-code (LCNC) platforms. These platforms provide user-friendly interfaces and pre-built components, allowing individuals with little to no coding experience to drag-and-drop their way to functional applications that address specific business needs.

The Rise of Citizen Development

The rise of citizen development marks a significant shift in the software development landscape.

Citizen development is gaining significant traction in recent years. The emergence can be attributed to several factors:

1. The rise of low-code/no-code platforms: LCNC platforms have become more user-friendly and sophisticated, offering a wide range of features and functionalities that cater to non-technical users.
2. The growing need for agility: Businesses today require faster solutions to address evolving market demands. Citizen development empowers business users to take ownership and iterate quickly on applications.
3. Bridging the IT gap: There’s a growing need to bridge the gap between IT capabilities and business requirements, which citizen development addresses by enabling non-technical staff to create solutions.
4. The democratization of technology: Technology is becoming increasingly accessible, and citizen development reflects this trend by allowing non-technical users to participate in the application development process.

Citizen Developers of the Past

While low-code platforms are a recent innovation, the concept of citizen development has existed for decades.? Early citizen developers leveraged powerful features within widely used productivity tools like:

• Microsoft Excel: Excel's robust formula engine, data manipulation capabilities, and macro functionality allowed users to create complex calculations, track inventory, and even build basic automation tools.
• Microsoft Access: Power users of Access built custom databases to manage customer information, track projects, and automate workflows, often without writing a single line of code.

These individuals, though not formally trained in development, were able to leverage their deep understanding of business processes and the functionalities of these tools to create solutions that improved efficiency and productivity within their departments.

However, their solutions sometimes faced limitations. The complexity of these custom applications, built with tools not designed for comprehensive application development, could lead to maintenance challenges even for the original creator.

This issue became even more problematic when the “developer” left the organization, as the knowledge and skills required to maintain the application might not have been easily transferred.

LCNC platforms aim to address these limitations by providing user-friendly tools with built-in governance and security features, ensuring applications created by citizen developers are sustainable and manageable in the long term.

The Role of Citizen Developers in Modern Businesses

Citizen developers play a crucial role in modern businesses by:

1. Solving business problems faster: Citizen developers can create applications to automate tasks, improve workflows, and streamline processes within their specific departments, leading to increased efficiency and productivity.
2. Bridging the gap between business needs and IT capabilities: Citizen developers can translate business needs into workable solutions (or at least a working proof of concept), fostering better communication and collaboration between business users and the IT department.
3. Boosting innovation: Empowering employees to build applications unleashes a wave of creativity within the organization, leading to innovative solutions that might not have been considered otherwise.

This article series will delve deeper into the exciting world of citizen development. We'll explore the benefits, necessary skills, the role of IT, popular platforms, the role of AI ( Isidoros Sideridis can you help on that?), and best practices to implement a successful citizen development program within your organization.