Fear of automation has been a major driver of negative attitudes toward technology and machines for a very long time. With sophisticated low-code and no-code development solutions on the horizon, even software developers may be unsure bout their job security.
Let's have a look at the future of low-code development by analyzing current trends and upcoming advancements.
Understanding low code development’s recent popularity
"Low code" describes tools, platforms, and other technologies that allow you to build applications with as little coding as possible.
Many businesses have begun to integrate cross-functional collaboration models to optimize their business processes and workflows. We are seeing multidisciplinary development teams known as fusion teams with a mix of software developers and non-tech business analysts who may not have coding experience.
IT leaders have found that the best way to bridge the gap between fusion team members is through low-code development platforms. Many of these platforms have begun to roll out new features to facilitate smooth collaboration between fusion teams as well.
The current state of low code development
Sophisticated low-code development platforms (LCDPs) can be used to build business porcess apps. We have seen low-code tools empowered by cloud-native SaaS applications, allowing users to build scalable architectures easily. These LCDPs can allow you to build custom mobile, desktop and web apps that can satisfy advanced use cases such as accepting payments or simple ones such as restricting access to certain content.
A software developer’s focus is to write code; that is their daily life. Thus, they may not have the on-the-job experience of the professionals or the use cases they write applications for. Who is more equipped to write robust medical apps than doctors and other medical staff? Who can fully sympathize with the plight of construction workers better than other construction workers?
That’s why the “citizen developers” movement has become so prominent. In fact, research conducted by Gartner revealed that over 41% of non-IT professionals customize or build their own software solutions to address business problems. Despite these statistics, businesses still need the input of developers. The problem domain has just evolved.
Where do we go from here?
As sophisticated as LCDP and NCDP tools are becoming, they still have their limitations. In the future, businesses will be able to address these limitations in a couple of ways.
In my article in DevOps.com, I offer a look at:
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
- how professional developers can overcome citizen developers' limitations
- addressing security
Better collaboration is the future of low code
Future no-code and low-code tools must be able to easily promote collaboration between professional developers and non-developers. These platforms should provide relatively easy and secure ways for developers to access code to modify and extend it as freely as possible.
In most cases, software developers already have frameworks and tools that they prefer to use for their workflows. From IDEs, CI/CD automation to testing software; low-code platforms should be able to plug into or interface with these established environments and tools.
Again, this attribute is extremely important, especially with the sweeping popularity of development and delivery methodologies such as Agile and DevOps. These techniques and models require smooth collaborative action between cross-functional teams. The more flexible an LCDP, the better. We’ve seen how unnecessary programming constraints of modern LCDPs can obstruct progress in cross-functional settings. These shortcomings must be addressed. If LCDPs/NCDPs fail to do this, their existence in the market will most likely be short-lived.
