The Rise of the Citizen Developer
The rise in Citizen Developers has been in the making for a few years as the Cloud connected (and inspired) the creation of unique business applications. So much so, IT departments became overloaded and Shadow IT issues became a reality. In parallel came the rise of Low Code and No Code platforms to enable Citizen Developers and facilitate better collaboration with IT.
“A citizen developer is a user who creates new business applications for consumption by others using development and runtime environments sanctioned by corporate IT. In the past, end-user application development has typically been limited to single-user or workgroup solutions built with tools like Microsoft Excel and Access. However, today, end users can build departmental, enterprise and even public applications using shared services, fourth-generation language (4GL)-style development platforms and cloud computing services. ” Source: Gartner Glossary
The Citizen Developer is looking to solve real-world business process problems they encounter directly in their line of business. Even though they are not software developers, they are building business applications using Low Code / No Code Platforms to stitch together application solutions based on a variety of use case scenarios. The applications they are building may combine email, messaging, file and data storage, project management, ERP, CRM, marketing automation, sales automation — picking from an ecosystem of potentially infinitely variable ISV integrations. No one ISV tool can claim to solve every creative business process a Citizen Development team desires. And nor should they be expected too. Far more creativity comes from allowing the Citizen Developer community to build the applications they uniquely need.
Low Code / No Code Platforms, and the rapid app development they foster, allow the ability of solution creation to spread to further corners of the organization. At the same time, they are broadening the audience for APIs. Enterprises are supportive, seeing them as a way to keep up with the demand for fast application innovation, as well as a way to bring new applications online quickly and expand their talent pool.
At Daitan we've experienced the rise of the Citizen Developer in many client environments and have developed some guidance called, the 10 Points to Prepare for the Citizen Developer, which we discuss in our latest whitepaper titled: Preparing for the Citizen Developer - How ISVs can Embrace a New Generation of No Code Developers as 'Change Agents' to Fuel Speed, Agility and Innovation in the Enterprise. If you are a Citizen Developer within an organization that uses Low Code or No Code platforms, I'd like to hear about your experiences. As always, you can reach me at [email protected].