Low-code and no-code development platforms help professional developers, and people who are not software developers build applications more quickly without the need to write code line by line. Learn how these platforms play an important role in digital transformation.
Low-code, what exactly is it?
Traditional (or pro-code) programming is a way to design and develop applications using graphical tools and embedded functionalities instead of traditional (or pro-code) programming. Low-code coding provides an enhanced and simplified user experience, allowing developers to get started quickly, even though pro-code is still a part of development.
What exactly is no-code?
A no-code solution provides a similar user experience to low-code but gives non-technical users the ability to develop applications without writing a single line of code.
How do tools with low code or no coding work?
For traditional application development, you need people who are very good at writing code, and you often have to wait in a long line in the IT department to get new apps made or updated.
Low-code development platforms (LCDPs) and no-code development platforms (NCDPs) are based on the ideas of model-driven design, automatic code generation, and visual programming, even if a user doesn't know how to code. These platforms are made to be used by people familiar with the processes and workflows in their business department. Again, this gives non-technical users more power and pairs them with experienced developers.
Here are some of the most important steps in the making of the LCNC:
Define what you want and need: Whether you're working on an app for customers or an internal business process, you need to know the business needs and what you want the project to accomplish from the start. What problem does this app have to fix? Who is going to use it? How will it work? What information and data will it need?
Draw a business process or workflow: With LCNC's business process management (BPM) and development tools, users can specify and document the processes and workflows they want. This is often done by figuring out the purpose of each module in the application and building them as separate pieces. Some modules may collect data, while others may cause an action or event. At this point, the citizen developer can build and connect the modules to get the desired result.
Test your project as an LCNC application and put it into use: With just a few clicks, the LCNC platform takes care of all the complicated parts of the process behind the scenes. IT experts and/or beta testers can try it out when the app is ready and give feedback. Once their suggestions have been considered, the app can be made available to everyone.
Who uses low-code or no-code app development?
Gartner predicts that 65 percent of new applications will be built on LCNC platforms by 2024. Over the next two years, this is expected to grow by 165 percent. Once businesses begin using LCNC tools, the number of citizen users and their skills quickly grows. People realise that app development can assist almost any part of a business with speed and accuracy.
Here are a few examples:
Supply chain managers can make apps to help them deal with problems like delays caused by pandemics, trade sanctions, and climate change, all of which can cause problems in the supply chain. These problems could be solved with the help of LCNC tools in three important ways:
Creating flexible and innovative applications for collaboration, end-to-end visibility, and better tracking and traceability throughout the supply chain.
Creating automated workflows and business processes to model, track, and improve supply chain operations, from getting the raw materials to delivering them to the customer's door.
Digitising old data and records and combining them with new and existing data makes it easier to get more accurate data-driven insights and analytics.
LCNC can be used in manufacturing to model processes and help smart factories and digital manufacturing environments grow and change. Robotic process automation (RPA) and Internet of Things (IoT) networks are also made more useful by LCNC. LCNC solutions help manufacturing operations run more smoothly and efficiently, from handling raw materials to packaging and shipping finished goods.
Accounting and finance teams can make custom business applications that support a wide range of workflows and information management processes. For example, by defining workflows for tax filing, an accounting firm could create a portal to guide clients through reporting expenses and income, presenting bank statements and other financial disclosures, and getting rid of the flood of emails and printed documents. In the same way, a financial institution could map workflows by automating loan approvals, risk assessments, decision flows, and information management. This would save time for both clients and financial advisors.
Human resources teams can use LCNC to customise job postings, automate the hiring process, sort candidates, and create whole training programs. All these things can now be done without putting a lot of stress on the IT teams.
IT departments find that LCNC platforms can help them simplify and speed up complicated processes, as well as be more flexible. With more citizen developers, organisations can also reduce IT bottlenecks and the amount of work they have to do. IT departments can still manage and implement LCNC projects, but they don't have to spend as much time writing code, which is usually a tedious and time-consuming part of that process. IT professionals are told to think of LCNC less as a threat and more as a flexible place of work that gives them the space they need to build and grow at their best. The most reliable software solutions support hybrids of pro-code and low-code, which is a process in the middle that requires both IT programming skills and work from citizen developers. Recent estimates say that IT pros and business users work together on more than 60% of LCNC development projects. Harvard Business Review also says that one IT developer can help as many as ten or more citizen developers, making the whole group more agile and productive.
Benefits of low-code and no-code platforms
SAP revealed the top 8 benefits of low-code and no-code platforms.
The growing use of LCNC platforms shows how useful these tools are for businesses. When LCNC platforms are used, it means:
1. easier to use: Since the apps aren't made from scratch, development is easier, which means more time can be spent on meeting users' needs and wants. "Imagine a world where you don't have to write code, you just say things and the computer does them for you," said Koushik Sen, a well-known computer science professor at UC Berkeley.
2.Faster development: Users can easily change and adapt their apps' main parts and basic code, so development goes very quickly. Users can also connect and integrate apps, processes, and workflows from other apps. Forrester found that low-code development platforms could speed up development projects by up to 20 times compared to traditional coding.
3. Increased automation: By setting up basic rules for making decisions, users can automate the design of workflows that can then be used in multiple information systems. Many LCNC tools use robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning to suggest ways to automate based on existing data sets.
4. Less expensive: Cutting down on time can save money and other valuable resources. LCNC also makes maintenance tasks more manageable, saving money and taking pressure off IT. Also, you can try out new ideas from almost any department for very little money. Then, these ideas can change whole processes and make them more productive and efficient.
- Making workflows where information is collected, shared, processed, and stored makes integrating data more accessible and more flexible. Users can use LCNC tools to find data, understand it, and use it in a process. This will help you figure out where data comes from, who owns it, how valid it is, and how good it is, so you can make better, more confident decisions.
6. More flexibility: Quick and easy development lets you respond quickly to changing opportunities and regulatory/compliance issues, often in real-time. Also, because LCNC platforms are easy to use, developers can try out new ideas without making big investments in IT or outside resources. Also, because LCNC makes development easier, more people can become developers. This means that more people can use technology to help make apps.
7. Better customer experience: Keeping applications and workflows up-to-date and changing them based on what customers say will improve customer experience and loyalty. CX professionals can also use LCNC platforms to make custom applications for customer surveys, e-commerce, customer service, and loyalty.
8. More privacy and security: LCNC lets businesses do development tasks that are too sensitive to give to third parties. This makes it less likely that a security breach or cybercrime will happen.
Challenges of low-code and no-code platforms
According to Sauce Labs there are three general
Inadequate oversight generates shadow IT.
Audits of suppliers vary from solution to solution.
Employee training in the use of low-code tools may not be welcome.
Challenge.1: The absence of oversight creates shadow IT.
A major concern with low-code application development is that nearly anyone in the organisation can create a new environment and begin development. This is known as "shadow IT: low-code application platforms make it easier for employees to circumvent IT governance and operate without management's knowledge. In the era of modern SaaS tools, the average company uses 1083 applications, but the IT department is only familiar with 108 of them, according to research conducted by McAfee. This creates new attack vectors for hackers to explore potential data leaks and security gaps that must be addressed by the organisation, particularly concerning essential business processes such as lead to cash, revenue to report, and issues to resolve. According to Gartner, one-third of successful enterprise attacks will target data residing in shadow IT resources.
Some low-code application platforms (LCAP) pose a greater risk to the organisation than others. Therefore, managers must gain complete visibility into all the cloud tools adopted, comprehend the risk assessment, and deploy the appropriate test automation frameworks to ensure that critical business processes are not compromised.
Solution to Challenge.2: Audits of Vendors Appear Different
Would a company audit Salesforce Marketing Cloud's security protocols in the same manner as Microsoft Teams or Discord? Moreover, would they audit third-party tools the same way they audit their code? Likely, the answer is no. Companies rely on compliance certifications, third-party security audits, and cybersecurity insurance to assess their vendors' security. However, when customer data and privacy are at stake, this is insufficient, and auditing the influx of low-code tools can become a full-time job. A data breach caused by an inadequate audit can result in additional work for technical staff as they attempt to find resolutions, loss of productivity and deferred resources, and a negative impact on the share price of a publicly traded company.
Challenge. 3: Training Might Not Be Accepted
Low-code platforms promise increased business efficiency and agility, but this is frequently accompanied by extensive training requirements and adopting a new user interface. Not all employees may agree that the learning curve of a new LCAP outweighs the benefits of adding it to the tool stack. Organisations seeking to adopt low-code application development must differentiate between the potential value of LCAPs and the total cost of adoption (training, opportunity costs, maintenance, slow or no adoption, etc.).
According to nox90.com,Any new technology comes with risks. In this article, we look at some of the problems with low-code and no-code platforms when it comes to security:
Not being able to be seen
No way to keep track of data
No access to auditing systems or systems used by providers
Business logic mistakes
Shadow IT tends to happen
Not being aware of security
Risk of code being seen
Lack of being seen
When it comes to low-code technologies, one of the biggest problems is that companies don't know what their employees are making. When IT isn't visible, it can be hard to track what is being built, and businesses can lose sight of their security needs.
Developers are attracted to low-code platforms.
These platforms require technical knowledge and enable good coders work faster. Coders will benefit from the more powerful tools that speed up technical development.
On the other hand, No-Code platforms are designed for business users.
Low-Code vs. no-Code: What's The Difference?
There is a growing demand for IT modernisation and hyperautomation, but many enterprises are struggling to keep up with these trends due to the limited number of developers available. Due to lacking technical resources, many IT projects are relegated into the "pending" folder. This results in operational inefficiencies and a decrease of time-to-market, which is a critical factor for companies to stay competitive.
These solutions offer an alternative to traditional development processes that is low-code or no-code.
What is low-code?
Low-code allows for rapid application development (RAD). It enables automated code generation using visual building blocks such as drag-and-drop or pull-down menu interfaces. Low-code developers can focus on the uniqueness of their programming rather than the common denominator. Low-code can be described as a middle ground between manual and automated coding. Users can add code to the code, but not over the auto-generated code.
Low-code applications include:
Mobile apps and website development.
Business process management platforms.
Cross-department tools such as appraisal management software.
They can also be integrated with external plugins or cloud-based next generation technologies like machine-learning libraries and robotic process automation.
What is the no-code code?
No-code can also be referred to as a RAD approach. It is often considered a subset the low-code modular plug-and play development approach. Low-code developers may provide some assistance in manual coding or scripting, but no-code is completely hands-off and relies solely on visual tools.
No-code apps are suitable for self-service apps for business users. They can also be used to build dashboards, web and mobile apps, data management platforms, and content management platforms. It is great for creating standalone apps quickly, with simple UIs and automations. No-code can also be used in facility management, calendar planning, and BI reporting apps with configurable columns or filters.
Automation with low-code or no-code
Low-code application platforms (LCAP), also known as low-code development platforms (LCDP), contain an integrated development environment (IDE) that includes features such as APIs, code templates, and reusable plugin modules. These tools allow for the automation of a large portion of the application development process. LCAPs are typically available as cloud-based Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions.
Low-code platforms are built on the principle that complexity can be reduced using visual tools and techniques such as process modelling. Users use visual tools to create workflows, business rules, and user interfaces. The entire workflow is converted to code automatically behind the scenes. LCAPs are primarily used by professional developers to automate generic aspects of coding and redirect effort to the final mile of development.
All code is generated using drag-and-drop or point-and-click interfaces in a no-code platform (NCDP), also known as a citizen automation platform and development platform (CADP). NCDPs can be used by professional developers, citizen developers, non-technical users, and people with little or no programming skills.
Low-code and No-code: Similarities & benefits
Low-code and no-code are similar in abstracting the complicated aspects of programming using visual interfaces. Both platforms can be used as PaaS solutions. They use a workflow-based design for data flow and define the logical progression. The common approach provides many advantages.
Technology democracy: Low-code and no-code solutions are created to empower different types of users. This helps to reduce dependency on expensive, hard-to-hire specialists and technologists.
Productivity enablers: low or no code increases development velocity, clears IT backlogs, and speeds up product rollouts.
Low-code/no-code allows developers to quickly get customer feedback before investing in significant resources. By displaying easy-to-build prototypes, developers can obtain quick customer feedback. This allows the decision to go or not to go earlier in the project's schedule, which minimises risk and costs.
More build than buying: While commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products can be expensive and have a one-size-fits-all approach, low-code and no-code incentivise in-house customisation, shifting the needle towards "build" in the buy vs build dilemma.
Architecture consistency: A centralised platform with low-code/no-code ensures consistency in design and code for cross-cutting modules such as audit and logging. Developers can also benefit from this uniformity when debugging applications. They can spend more time fixing issues than trying to understand the frameworks.
Cost-effectiveness: Low code/no-code development is cheaper than manual, from scratch because it requires fewer people, has lower infrastructure costs, and costs for maintenance. This also leads to a higher ROI and faster agile releases.
Collaboration between IT and business: The push-pull relationship between development and business teams is a tradition. There is a greater balance between these two seemingly disparate worlds, thanks to more business users participating in low-code/no-code development.
What is the difference between low-code and no-code?
Docova SaaS Solutions revealed that Despite subtle differences in their solutions, there is a lot of overlap between these two approaches. This is exacerbated by the confusing positioning of low-code platform vendors. There are some important differences that you should consider.
Users to target
Low-code is designed for professional developers. It allows them to avoid repeating basic code and creates space for more complex aspects of programming that can lead to innovation and richer feature sets. It automates the basic aspects of programming and uses a syntax-agnostic approach to allow for developer reskilling.
No-code is for business users with extensive domain knowledge, who may also have a slight tech skill but are unable to manually write code. This tool is great for small business owners, business users, and software developers. It also works well with non-IT legal, HR, and finance teams.
Use cases
Front-end apps can be easily designed using drag-and-drop interfaces and require no code. UI apps pull data directly from sources, report, analyse, import, and export it.
No-code can also be used to replace repetitive administrative tasks such as Excel-based reports that are used by business teams. These projects are not easy to prioritise by IT but can be a lifesaver for business teams. This is a great option for smaller-scale apps or apps that don't have a lot of functionality.
Low-code can be extended to heavyweight business logic
applications and scaled up to enterprise level with an extensive component library. Low-code can be used to connect to multiple data sources, integrate with other apps, and create systems that require the IT lens.
Speed
Because low-code offers more customisation opportunities, so it requires more training and time to develop, deploy, and onboard. It's still much faster than traditional development.
Low-code takes longer to build than No-code because it is highly configurable and plug-and-play. Because fewer errors can be introduced by manual programming, testing time is reduced. It's all about making sure the data flow and configurations are correct.
Shadow IT risks
This has been a problem for both low-code platforms and no-code platforms. However, shadow IT poses a greater risk because it requires minimal or almost no intervention by IT teams. This could lead to a parallel infrastructure that isn't closely monitored, which can lead to security vulnerabilities and technical debt.
However, IT teams still have to deal with low-level code. This can be a good sign that governance and control are possible.
Architectural range
Low-code has higher cross-platform compatibility and scalability scores than no-code. Custom plugins and code can be added to allow for a wider variety of implementations and work with multiple platforms.
No-code is less extensible and has limited potential to connect to legacy systems or integrate with other platforms. It is therefore limited in scope and can only be used for a small number of applications.
When to use low-code and when to use non-code
Each has its strengths. This is not an easy decision because of the similarities between them. It is best to evaluate the current needs and then make a decision.
These are some questions that will help you determine your user's needs.
What are the objectives of low-code and no-code software?
Who are these users? How skilled are they in programming?
How large is the problem?
Do you need to integrate with other applications or internal programs?
How long is the turnaround time?
What level of control do you want users to have over the code?
Do you need the application to handle confidential data?
These are the two most important questions: Who will create it, and what is it for? These are both important questions. However, it is better to be goal-centric than user-centric. That is, what is important is more important than who.
Low-code is preferred if the use cases are complicated, involve integrations with other cloud or on-premises apps, or have business-critical or customer-facing requirements. Users can still benefit from training programs or partnerships with IT departments even if they don't have the programming skills required.
Low-code/no-code application development's future
According to industry analysts, low-code will continue to be adopted by enterprises, especially for rapid development and specialised business demands, but it will not completely replace traditional application development.
Gartner analysts believe that the low-code industry rose by 23 percent in 2020, reaching $11.3 billion, and that it will reach $13.8 billion in 2021 and nearly $30 billion by 2025. In addition, Gartner predicts that by 2024, low-code application development will account for 65% of total application development activity, primarily for small and medium-sized projects. Forrester predicts that 75 percent of businesses will utilise a low-code platform by 2021, up from the current 50 percent.
It is anticipated that low-code and no-code will expand among LOB workers. At the same time, more professional developers will adopt it to assist them with routine programming chores.
According to Forrester, business process or workflow applications, online and mobile front ends, and customer-facing applications are currently the most prevalent uses of low-code. Adapting to COVID-19 pandemic-related scenarios, such as employee contract tracing apps, demonstrates that low-code has rapidly become a normal technique for rapid application development. The expansion of low-code into broader areas, such as reengineering technology stacks and ecosystems, is anticipated by experts.
However, organisations will continue to use conventional application development techniques for applications requiring comprehensive application functionality, data governance, and deployment to specialised architectures or environments.
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