It’s been a while since Betty Blocks organized the greatest no-code event of 2019, but people are still talking about it. Bummer if you missed out, but we have some good news: you can now access all the presentations you really need to watch to be up to date about the latest developments in no-code and Citizen Development.
Want to know what to expect before you go? Here’s a quick recap of some of the important things you might have missed.
Microsoft: on a mission to democratize no-code
No-code and Citizen Development are more than just software, more than a technological orientation. They represent a full-on paradigm shift of how we think about software development, and who can be a developer.
This reflects larger changes all the way to the top of the IT industry. Microsoft is a perfect example of a company that knows innovation is about culture, people, and mindset as much as it is about technology.
When Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft in 2014, he brought with him a change in culture and in company mission. They went from a culture of know-it-alls to learn-it-alls; from a genius culture to a curious culture, according to BBoS speaker Bram Veenhof. Their new mission? “Empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”
Microsoft will realize this vision by using what defines us: technology. And Citizen Development is how they will make sure that the right technology gets into the hands of every person.
The rise of the Citizen Developer
No-code platforms have become synonymous with Citizen Development, and the no-code platforms on the market today are taking Citizen Development to levels never reached before.
According to Kees Kranenburg from Atos, today’s Citizen Developer is miles ahead of yesterday’s power user. “There’s a big difference and that is the tools,” he says. For Kranenburg, the big selling point is automation. With more and more automation built into platforms, Citizen Developers are able to develop a lot of different aspects of applications – and far more than in the past.
For Simon Hunt, low-code expert and independent IT contractor for the UK Ministry of Defence, it’s all about the new possibilities cloud technology brings. “The game changer for me is the cloud,” he says. “That’s where the technology has changed.” Historically, Citizen Developers were restricted by locked databases, but Simon has seen an explosion of Citizen Developer activity with this generation’s SaaS and Citizen Development platform offerings.
Optimizing your IT department
The success of Citizen Development isn’t all about the tools: it’s about enabling better collaboration between the business and IT. “Only introducing no-code to increase productivity of an IT department is not enough,” states Kranenburg. “So we need to collaborate with business.” At Atos, solution lead for low-code platforms, Kranenburg deliberately looks for a mix of backgrounds when assembling Citizen Developer teams. “We see that all kinds of employees are productive within a low-code/no-code environment.”
Kranenburg continues: “It’s about collaboration and you need the right mix of skills in the team. Scrum masters and business analysts can build applications on the platform, but when you need to integrate with a native mainframe, there is still programming to be done. That’s where the real specialists come in.”
Hunt sees it as the perfect formula to recruit and retain developers, by having a full spectrum of different types of developers working together: “When you’ve got a job market that’s short on developers, this is a great way to build them.” The idea is that it’s like being a musician: just pick up an instrument and practice, and with a little training you can totally join a band!
More than just platforms
Today’s tools simply provide new opportunities to Citizen Developers that weren’t available in the past. “It’s not about the technology, but it’s the technology that empowers and allows Citizen Developers to rise up,” says Betty Blocks CEO Chris Obdam.
His view is that no-code platforms have to be more than a platform in order to really set Citizen Developers up for success. That includes organizational support, educational resources, and training for both Citizen Developers and IT professionals.
Spoiler alert: Betty Blocks’ product roadmap builds many of these features right in to the platform.
