No-Code Is The Future Of Software: Here Are Five Critical Things To Drive Success In 2022 And Beyond

In early 2021, Gartner released a new forecast for low-code/no-code development tools. Driven by an increase in remote work due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Gartner?projected a 23% increase?for the global market for this type of technology. In the months that followed, low-code/no-code tools saw steady growth due to their effectiveness in addressing some of tech’s most complicated challenges—primarily the critical need to digitize workflows, enhance customer and employee experiences and boost the efficiency of commercial and operational teams.

According to?Harvard Business Review, low-code/no-code platforms have evolved from just facilitating function-specific tools to making it possible for a broader range of business employees to truly own their automation and build new software applications with no coding while increasing organizational capacity.

Low-code/no-code tools also drew attention in the context of the Great Resignation, with?Entrepreneur?noting that low-code/no-code platforms make it easier for companies to address the ongoing shortage in engineering and developer talent. An increasing number of businesses and IT leaders are leveraging the possibilities of low-code/no-code tools as organizations work to turn more of their employees into citizen developers.

As the movement continues and adoption increases across key industries from financial services to manufacturing, organizations need to pay attention to these five topics in order to improve the performance of their new tools and ensure the success of their low-code/no-code initiatives.

1. Addressing Security In Low-Code/No-Code Platforms

It’s clear why executives would see the business benefits of adopting low-code/no-code platforms and tools. By giving non-IT employees the opportunity to build their own business applications, an organization can unlock new areas for rapid growth. However, some executives are cautious. As citizen developers are given the opportunity to build new applications, governance will be important. IT staff will need to put guardrails in place and have those built into low-code/no-code platforms to maintain consistent levels of security across the organization.

For companies integrating new low-code/no-code tools into their tech stack, or leveraging existing tools, it’s important to remember some of today’s most common cybersecurity best practices: namely, training every employee at the organization on good security behavior and using compartmentalization and limited access to prevent opportunities for mistakes.

2. Hiring, Training And Organizing Work For No-Code Developers

Encouraging employees to become no-code developers and create their own business applications requires a shift in mindset for everyone in the organization. This includes overarching processes like hiring and training, as the traits that make a good citizen developer may be different than those a company previously looked for. Above all, a good citizen developer is willing to be creative and take risks.

While the employees themselves should be free to create their own tools and solutions, it's incumbent on the organization to create the frameworks that will allow them to succeed. Companies that embrace low-code/no-code tools must ensure that employees have access to training, reference materials and policies that will help them to align their operations with other business units and the company as a whole.

3. Organizational Alignment For Low-Code/No-Code Development

Low-code/no-code platforms democratize the ability to create new software applications, making it possible for individual departments or units to solve problems without a direct need to rely solely on scarce IT resources. For?no-code companies, harmonizing workflows is a key requirement for success.

In a low-code/no-code organization, departments should be able to work without silos and communicate freely across functions. Low-code/no-code platforms make it easy to pass information from one area of the company to another and standardize the development approaches across business and IT teams. This emphasis on openness and alignment should come from the top, providing justification for employees at all levels to pursue new solutions.

4. Embracing Hyperautomation For Rapid Progress

According to Gartner’s "Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022," hyperautomation will grow rapidly over the next three years in terms of both deployment and investment. Business-driven hyperautomation allows organizations to “rapidly identify, vet and automate as many business and IT processes as possible.” Low-code/no-code tools are poised to play a leading role in this hyperautomation arms race. Organizations that take a centralized, coordinated approach to hyperautomation will be able to find new efficiencies that map directly to their business goals.

5. Speeding Time To Market With Composable Applications

Between the distributed aspects of hybrid work and the changing responsibilities enabled by low-code/no-code tools, the structure of modern business teams changed significantly over the past two years. Composability is the ability to assemble app components in various combinations to satisfy specific requirements. It makes it possible for organizations to increase production and accelerate timelines for innovation in a highly customizable way.

Organizations must increasingly become what Gartner is calling a “composable enterprise.” Low-code/no-code organizations in 2022 and beyond can embrace the fusion of IT and business staff, empowering them with composable applications to speed time to market for new solutions. Low-code/no-code, APIs and other tools are enabling companies to integrate new applications into their existing tech stack in a more seamless manner with a lift-and-shift approach vs a rip-and-replace.

We know low-code/no-code platforms will continue to grow in 2022, building on Gartner’s projection of $5.8 billion for the low-code application platform market. However, the extent to which these platforms make a difference will depend on individual approaches and implementations. Successful enterprises will be able to capitalize on emerging opportunities for low-code/no-code applications while simultaneously building the necessary organizational and security structure. The businesses that do so will reap the rewards of increased agility, creativity and growth, putting them in pole position for years to come.

This article originally appeared on?Forbes.com.