Should organizations adopt hybrid app development? Gartner estimates,
- By 2023, more than 50% of medium and large enterprises will use low-code/no-code for application development.
- By 2024, Low code application platforms will contribute more than 65% of app development.
As we are moving towards low code/no code application development, it is the best time to highlight how traditional app development lays the foundation, and low code/no code (LC/NC) is the topping. Here we have predicted the most sustainable way of application development. Read more to find out.
Traditional Vs Low code/no code method
Conventionally, when organizations needed business applications, they had two options. First was to build the application from the scratch with their own developers which is a time-consuming and costly affair. Second option was to buy it from a vendor. As the application provided by the vendor was already built, businesses had to modify their needs according to the application as buying customized applications costed a fortune.
Over the years, these two methods gave birth to another method where the already built application or platform can be customized according to the needs of the business and this took less time and cost to build. This is the low code/no code method. Now as organizations are quickly adopting the low code/no code way of application development, this blog will give you a comprehensive view of the better way of app development.
How low code/no code came into existence?
As businesses expand drastically, The demand for software automation and new business applications continues to increase, forcing software developers to build applications in volume and tailor them to organizations’ unique business needs. Low-code/no-code development platforms allow the developers to quickly create applications that address the organization’s specific process and data needs.
In June 2014, Forrester called this type of application low code development. As we are aware, low code requires coding knowledge, and people in the coding environment use it to build applications. Low code/no code development has its foundation on model-driven design, automatic code generation, and visual programming. You can create operational applications with or without additional coding for specific situations. Low-code development reduces traditional time spent, accelerating the delivery of business applications.
On the other hand, no code, as the name says, requires no coding knowledge; it comes with the drag and drop features more like a plug and play application where business users can create applications to automate a workflow or create applications without depending on the software developers. These business users are citizen developers.
Impact of Low code/No code development
Low code/no code development fixed some important problems of coding, inadequate bandwidth of developers to accommodate technical tasks and created agility for innovation.
- Finding a great and experienced coder is expensive for small and medium-scale businesses.
- Non-technical teams that cannot code depend on developers for development or improvements.
- A developers’ task list gets backlogged with simple requests from non-technical teams.
- The coding process takes a long time to complete, and non-technical teams can’t afford to experiment ideas as developers cannot support it.
Low code/No code platforms have helped users to avoid this dependency on IT developers for minimal tasks. With visual programming and drag-and-drop features, now business users and people with less coding knowledge can build valuable applications.
Benefits of Low code/no code:
Benefits include a more comprehensive range of people who can contribute to the application’s development, including those with coding skills and those with coding exposure. It also reduces the initial setup cost, training, deployment, and maintenance of the business applications. It requires good governance that adheres to standard rules and regulations so you can avoid data breaches and security and compliance issues.
Downsides of Citizen Developers:
- Security and compliance risks:
Concerns about the security and compliance of low-code development platforms continue to increase. The security of apps built so quickly lacks due governance, which could lead to high compliance issues. Though Low-code apps drive innovation, it often requires professional developers’ involvement to check the application’s shape and condition. What best can you do? Creating secure data workflows becomes easier with continuous app development in mind.
- Quality of applications:
There is a sense of doubt regarding the quality of the applications built with low code/no code. Reliance on low-code/no-code products can result in significant product quality degradation. While citizen developers contribute to application development, they typically lack technical expertise. Inadequate training for these developers is a significant cause of the drop in quality. Furthermore, internal adoption of low-code development platforms may increase unsupported applications built by shadow IT.
Is low code/no code a better option, considering the downsides of citizen development?
Citizen developers have greatly accelerated application development. The market growth of low-code/no-code development can be attributed to its flexibility and ease of use. Low-code development platforms are shifting their focus to general-purpose applications that can add a few lines of custom code as desired to tailor the applications. Here are a few,
- Business transaction applications
LC/NC software development aims to accommodate building various application types. Small business transactional systems are probably the most prevalent. They can create applications for business transactions using little or no code. On the other hand, large enterprises may require costly packages or custom-developed programs developed by IT developers to perform them.
- Small-scale automation capabilities
In general, professional developers should automate large-scale enterprise processes and workflows. Small-scale businesses and many businesses have smaller workflows to automate, such as interactions with office productivity software, excel spreadsheets, etc.
- Data Analytics
Low code/no code is revolutionizing analytics. The descriptive analytics market has grown primarily due to LC/NC programs that can generate appealing and insightful visual analytics. Vendors can provide LC/NC versions of predictive analytics and machine learning software to guide the analyst or data scientist through an automated series of steps to create models that fit a training dataset. Some systems can provide insights via text or voice chat.
- Web and mobile sites
With LC/NC programs, you can develop web and mobile sites. The Low code/no-code website design tools provide hosting services and features that aid search engine optimization and social media marketing. They also enable the setup and management of digital analytics, simplifying website creation and management.
Low-code development platforms have high mobile accessibility. Low-code packages typically include that feature as standard, eliminating the need for developers to spend time creating multi-device software. With LC/NC applications, technology product developers can make configuration and device setup easier.
Hybrid App Development – The best option
Research shows that 75.2% of companies have adopted low-code and no-code platforms to complement traditional software development. Low-code and no-code application development cannot replace traditional IT developers. Instead, these platforms can help IT developers eliminate mundane tasks and focus on tasks only they can perform, leading to better resource utilization and innovation.
Citizen developers might create applications that don’t work or scale well. The person may leave the company, leaving the application an orphan. However, LC/NC oversight can control this issue and standardize the handoff of applications from citizen developers to professional ones when appropriate. IT organizations must maintain some control over system development, including selecting which LC/NC tools the organization will support.
What should enterprises do to leverage low code/no code platforms with no harm?
The best option is a hybrid app development – citizen + professional development model. The hybrid app development will greatly reduce the Shadow IT which is one of the primary concerns of many organizations as,
- The user develops the model for a use case and hands it over to the developer in case of low code.
- For no code, the citizen developer can create the initial application using a graphic interface tool and hand it over to the IT developer to program it in a more scalable language.
The hybrid app development model enables the developer to record the system’s existence, ensure it works correctly, and integrate any needed data or transactional system, increasing the application’s governance and quality.
How can we help?
At SAXON, we help organizations build applications for any business use case. All you have to do is bring your use case and we can get you your custom app in just a day. If you are in the figuring out stage, we can help you identify what suits the best for your business needs.
To get your app in a day, Get in touch with us.