My Experience with Low-code Development Platform - Appian

With three years of experience as a software developer, I've always believed that building a functioning application necessitates an understanding of many programming languages. As a graduate student at The University of Texas at Dallas, I was alerted that MS ITM has added MIS 6385 Robotic Process Automation to their course schedule. This was my first encounter with Appian, a low-code RPA platform.

With all of the market's digital transformations and dynamism, it's more important than ever to drive process improvement at every level, which necessitates everyone's participation. Low code allows this while also simplifying the app development process by removing the need to learn sophisticated coding. Low-code development takes the guesswork out of creating amazing, modern business apps, and less guesswork equals smoother sailing. With these advantages, businesses are better able to adapt and respond to rapidly changing business situations.

Appian can be used in a variety of sectors. As an Appian developer, you don't need to write any logic code in any language; instead, you may utilize the Appian process model feature to design a workflow of the powerful business application. Not only that, you don't have to rely on any language or UI/UX developer to build an application's UI/UX. Instead, utilize Appian's drag and drop functionality to construct an interface for your application.

During this semester's lesson, we developed applications such as a vehicle management system and Global Asset Management. We don't just construct the app in RPA class; we also explore how to improve some of the app's capabilities. It's much more than simply learning how to make apps. Professor Gaurav Shekhar has always been receptive to feedback.

The following are some of the highlights of my application:

1. Vehicle Management Application: Designed a vehicle management application with operations depending on user choices and displayed the data with Appian's charts feature. We began by learning how to create a Vehicle Fleet Management Application that could be utilized on both the desktop and mobile platforms. We discovered which pieces are necessary and how to set up each one. We even learned how to design distinct views for different categories of users with different application permissions, so every user has a different view as per their roles and functionalities on a site. Managers will also be able to access different reports made using the company's data and give useful insights about the vehicle information. This was my first completely working software, which I created from beginning to end took almost a month.

2. Hackathon by KPMG: We took a part in a KPMG hackathon to test our skills and learn for the low code. In this hackathon, we were asked to create a fully developed application for Global Asset Management in just one week which was only possible because of the low code and parallel development capabilities of Appian's platform.

Aside from my technical knowledge, I'd like to thank my brilliant and committed teammates — Rajkumar Gupta, Nimish Sharma, Priyanshi Bhatnagar, and Raj Kumar – for making this project memorable experience. Aside from our numerous projects and hackathons, I appreciated the essential lectures and classroom experience that exposed me to low-code.

Prof. Gaurav Shekhar, in particular, deserves special recognition for providing such an engaging and interesting lecture each week and for exposing me to the world of Appian and Low code.