Blog | Betty Blocks

Citizen Developers will seek solutions – with or without your help

Geschreven door Jim Portanger | 9/12/17 10:00 AM


Citizen Developers are the spark that ignites innovation.

Developing is becoming everyone's business. With the rise of hpaPaaS (high-productivity application platform as a service), it’s never been easier for business end-users to create their own IT solutions. Back in the day, IT departments had to make build-vs.-buy decisions when it came to acquiring applications. They either bought a commercial product that didn’t completely fit their needs, or they hand crafted a solution themselves, which took ages and cost a lot of money.

The Rise of the Citizen Developer

Millennials entering the professional field has brought about some changes. Software becoming a part of everyday life has greatly increased overall software proficiency among the workforce. Add the evolution of developing platforms to the equation, and the rise of the Citizen Developer becomes a natural consequence. People don’t want to rely on IT anymore. They want to be the driving force in the company and initiate action themselves. 

Start accelerating and innovating

Fortune favors the quick; embracing Citizen Developers lowers your financial development risk. In the past, IT needed to be selective about which projects would receive the funding,  After all, it used to take months to come up with an application prototype. In many cases, after that time, the application had become obsolete, or would require additional changes. Over time, those changes would actually create performance issues. Today, many more projects can be funded and guided through a successful development process. By using High-Productivity Tools, more team members can be involved in the development process. These Citizen Developers can help your IT department to shift its focus to innovation and improving. 

Citizen Development saves you a lot of time and money so your company can focus on what’s important: innovation!

The role of a Citizen Developer

Thanks to hpaPaaS like Betty Blocks, software development isn’t just for IT professionals anymore. Business-users have long not been able to develop tech solutions themselves.
Basically; No-Code platforms allow Citizen Developers to realize their applications themselves. This helps bridge the gap between needs and solutions. Citizen Developers increase your company’s ability to react when there is a need for change.

Have your IT and Citizen Developers work together

IT teams are typically understaffed, and turning to them for every single solution won’t make their lives any easier. When the IT’s backlog is a mess, it may take more time to provide the services your businesses may require. People within your business may go rogue and start setting up their own, non-approved, servers, or use other insecure means of storage. To prevent a situation like this, the Citizen Developers and IT department should look at ways to collaborate on application development. Citizen Developers can create, test, adapt and deploy the initial applications, and IT can improve upon the original app and add additional capabilities.

In other words, you create an environment in which the IT department can focus on the bigger picture.

Give them a Platform! 

This is where High-Productivity Tools, like Betty Blocks, come into play. These platforms empower citizen developers, are approved by IT professionals and fall within compliance regulations of the company. High-Productivity Tools can reduce development time from months to weeks or even days. Businesses need to be agile to keep up with the current, ever-transforming landscape.

Our platform enables Citizen Development like no other platform. Betty Blocks is truly No-Code; you can visually drag & drop your application into existence. Create your app as if you are building a website. Point, click, drag.

Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of the platform. You can go as far and complex as you like, building robust solutions that will delight all your stakeholders, both inside and outside your organization. The sky's the limit! 

As said before; users will seek solutions, with or without you. You’d better go along. Click here to get access to a free online demo!