Are you doing Citizen Development right?

I was speaking to a low-code tech analyst the other day. He mentioned that the bulk of the inquiries he receives is about Citizen Development. As a long-time evangelist of Citizen Development, I was, of course, pleased to hear that. ??

So, Citizen Development is alive and kicking and expanding fast. But what is it again? Citizen Development allows individuals outside the IT department to build software within an organization. Or, as we call it, letting the business solve its own software problems.

Addressing the misconceptions

However, there are quite a few misconceptions about the Citizen Developer and Citizen Development. Let's address them:

1. Anyone can build an app now!
2. IT is no longer needed.
3. There are two types of developers: a “normal” one and a Citizen Developer.

Truth be told, we’ve made mistakes here as well, especially with the first point. We had a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) that stated precisely that ??. For us, it made sense that not everyone is cut out for building apps. Many people don’t have the desire to build an app or the?skills to do so.?

These individuals are hard to transform into successful Citizen Developers. But it’s essential to clarify this because a promise like “everyone can build” is often taken very seriously. So, it's crucial to set the right expectation: no, not everyone can build an app.

What about IT?

Last week, I was interviewed on a national business radio station. On-air, I was asked: when people outside of IT are building apps, why do you still need an IT department?

This might be the biggest misconception: that IT is out of the loop. This is far from reality.

The IT landscape has radically changed in the last few years. The demand for software has exploded; everyone is undergoing digital transformation nowadays. An IT department is flooded with requests: “Move our SAP to the cloud!” “Implement a remote workplace environment.” So, IT decides to work on projects that have the most significant impact on the entire organization.

So, a request like “build me software that fixes my paper workflow,” which is specific to a department, is not at the top of the list. Fortunately, the mindset in IT has also changed. They have embraced the fact that demand will always exceed what they can offer. In response, they know that they need to provide facilities to the business to solve their software problems still.

Enter Citizen Development, offered by IT. So, is IT in the loop? Yes! They are facilitating Citizen Development.

Okay, so my IT department offered me access to Betty Blocks. Awesome. Let’s assume I'm a logistics manager. Will building apps be my day job as a Citizen Developer? That's kind of hard because I need to run a logistics department. But I still want to participate in the app-building process because I understand the business problem inside out!

Enter the third developer persona or role: the Business Technologist.

Will the real Business Technologist please stand up?

Ever since I’ve been into low-code, I have explained it like this: every department has a tech-savvy person. Which person do you turn to when your PC doesn’t do what you expect it to? Everyone knows a person like this.

A lot of organizations are formalizing this role, often called an x-technologist, where 'x' could be replaced with the department or industry you are in. For example, an insure-technologist, a legal technologist, and so on. We call that person a Business Technologist to generalize.

This brings us to three roles:

1. The Citizen Developer - The business person who knows the problem inside out and wants to participate in building, but only part-time.
2. The Business Technologist - Knows the business and IT and knows how to use low-code to build apps.
3. The Low-Code Developer - The IT person who is involved in the background to offer help, tackles the hard stuff when needed, and ensures the app is built in line with policies.

This combined setup is called Fusion Teams. But that needs a post of its own later. ??

So, keep these misconceptions in mind when you think about low-code for Citizen Development. It's far more than just building an app quickly. It's about setting your organization up for success to build dozens of apps.

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