There’s been a lot of talk about the possibility of low-code applications over the past year-and it’s all part of the broader trend of citizen development.
One stat is enough to contextualize the need for this new approach: there will be more applications to be made in the next four years than have been done in the past forty. 500 million applications need to be made to keep up with innovation.
But we can’t get to that enormous number with the same processes we always experience, and that’s where citizen development comes in.
Of course not everyone will be involved – not everyone has the ability or even the lust to build apps. But citizen development will involve a larger proportion of workers than then until now.
So how do we get the people’s development right?
In this blog, I will describe three key elements to successful citizen development campaigns, in my experience.
1. Select the correct use cases
First and foremost, it is important not to create a hill that you will never climb. Successful citizen development requires choosing obvious, actionable use cases that affect as much of your organization as possible.
Some processes lend themselves specifically to citizen development, i.e., the most regular and recurring. Those could be flow -based workflows, task management, or request fulfillment. These may be Excel-driven processes, third-party integration, or system orchestration. Or it can guarantee an experience with functions across multiple systems, or access to both apps and data simultaneously.
Some tasks, however, are less perfect and are probably best avoided: we are talking about those involving unstructured data, non-repetitive processes, graphics processing, video/audio streaming, or very customized UI.
The important thing is that in any area you can choose to implement citizen development, you need to implement design-driven thinking as a way that IT continues to work. included the business, rather than just for it. Rather than a place to get a new PC, phone, or app, IT is a business function in its own right that must play an ongoing role in driving growth and efficiency. So, don’t just create an app and let it stop.
2. Enable Citizen Developer
As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, not everyone needs to be, or will be, a good citizen builder. More often than not, the profile of the citizen’s best developer is fairly clear.
The ideal citizen developer is often found in parts of the organization that are technology -loving, or have a role in supporting existing apps. They don’t have to be app experts, but they are do understand how app functions can deliver value to business units. That means they are more likely to understand that citizen development is an IT partnership, with moderate technology skills, and an understanding of the existing business application infrastructure, data and processes.
Ideally, of course, citizen developers should have a interest in learning app development, too.
It’s not just about finding the right people and sending them on their way, however.
Businesses really need to enable and empower their citizen developers to drive change, and that requires, first, adequate training and testing.
Citizen developers need a custom learning curriculum that includes organization-specific content, assesses efficiency through core testing, and increases access levels as competency develops.
And they need ongoing support from IT. Thus, it is important to establish office hours with the core IT team, offer app reviews by pro developers, and curate best practices in platform development.
3. Put up the right guardrails and create centers of excellence
Finally, the language around citizen development projects often shifts to the realm of ‘everything is possible!’
While that’s true to some extent, it doesn’t mean giving access everywhere to every employee in your business. Citizen development requires strong guardrails to function most effectively.
The formal structure is by no means slower, however. In fact, the formal structure can actually speed up processes by reducing errors and costly mistakes in the final product. These guardrails can also prevent costly so -called ‘Shadow IT’ emerging and fill in the gaps.
So what do these guardrails look like?
From a security perspective, this includes everything from RBACs and ACLs, to scope applications, legacy models, robust logging and authentication procedures, and security to web services. And from a platform security perspective, this includes instance architecture, HTML sanitizer, system logs, encryption support, certificates, VPNs, domain separation, antivirus scanning, auditing, and edge encryption.
Whatever you choose in your particular opportunity, by starting with the appropriate guardrails and building solid ‘centers of excellence’ before you begin the actual app development process, you are more likely to develop reliable and secure apps in the long run.
Examples of industries that succeed in citizen development
It is important to remember that citizen development is not just a concept. Businesses in various industries are already seeing the benefits that this type of development can bring.
An example is the legal industry. IT Leaders in the legal space are more reluctant to buy out-of-the-box tools, because the details of their environment mean they will only use fractions of the capabilities offered by this tool.
What they really need is just to build the pieces they will actually use: these tools need to adapt to their strictly controlled working habits, as well as work with previously legal software.
By creating custom applications and workflows, legal businesses can help their clients more quickly: fewer to no hand-off processes, the ability to create custom workflows for specific partner, and even the simplification of PA processes.
The second example where citizen development succeeds is in research establishments. They require platforms and applications that allow better collaboration and sharing, especially where sensitive data is involved.
For a business, these operations have actually had its own pandemic period.
The Francis Crick Institute created a working track and trace application in 22 days on the ServiceNow App Engine. It created an automated workflow across testing, results, and notifications, allowing Crick staff to work on site and continue their critical research work. Staff are checked every seven days, with automatic alerts and status updates sent out as needed, which saves a huge burden on admin work.
The future low code is now
Low code and citizen development have large and heavy potential for organizations. They have the power to change the way we approach digital transformation, bringing in larger sections of the workforce, and thus producing solutions that are truly relevant to the need of employees.
That being said, this is not a free-for-all. Businesses looking to succeed in low-code and citizen development need to put the right processes and guardrails in place to create an environment where low-code development can actually thrive. They need to help develop the emerging skills of would -be citizen developers, and finally, look to create solutions that will make the biggest difference.
If businesses get those three elements right, they are on track to make the most of all that people’s development has to offer.
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