What Do We Mean by "Low-Code?"

The potential for low-code platforms is enormous because they allow business people to build applications to solve the business problems they might have waited months for in the past.

There's a lot of buzz around software platforms that claim to be "low code" or "no code." You may have also heard the term "citizen developer" mentioned when describing these platforms. But what does all this mean for the average business person?

Low-code platforms provide visual tools or building blocks that allow certain types of applications to be built using drag and drop rather than a coding framework. Often low-code platform users are building?process-based?applications, where a series of steps need to be performed by people in a specific order to achieve a particular outcome. In some cases, rather than a person, it's a system that needs to perform a task, for instance, checking for data changes or grabbing specific data to use as part of the process.

Here is an example of our low-code platform, Integrify being used to build a document review and approval application. The different types of tasks on the left are dragged out onto the canvas and connected to reproduce the process a user will go through when using the application.

For instance, say you're in the finance department and need an invoice approval process application built. In the past, you might have gone to the IT or DevOps team and provided requirements for them to build it. The DevOps team would slot your project in with all the others and eventually use Python, C#, or Java to develop your requested application. In the best-case scenario, this would take 6+ months, and, assuming they nailed it, your team would be using the application to manage invoice approvals more efficiently.

More likely, though, the project would take longer and require much back and forth, including scope changes and resource deficiencies, only to arrive at an application that misses the mark. This delay is no one's fault and has more to do with the fact that DevOps teams are under-resourced and overbooked. In addition, there is usually a communication gap between the business users' needs and how the DevOps team interprets those needs.

By bringing the development process directly to the business users, low-code platforms reduce cycle times and communication gaps. Business users, who have direct knowledge of the process and access to process members, can build, test, and refine their applications until they reach their intended outcome.?

Low-code platforms will never replace the need for developers and DevOps teams, but low-code is a movement toward making some types of development easier for business users. The need for purpose-built, department-specific applications will never go away, but?how?they're being produced is changing. Especially as the pool of developer talent dwindles and the maturity of low-code platforms increases.