Should developers be afraid of low code?

Low code is popular

The LCDP (Low Code Development Platform) market is large and growing rapidly. Forrester predicts that by 2022, the market for low-code development platforms will increase significantly from $3.8 billion in 2017 to $21.2 billion. Gartner estimates that by 2024, 65% of application development will involve some form of low-code application development.

Four features driving low-code popularity

Low code has pre-built modules

Through a library of pre-built modules, the low-code platform allows developers to easily and seamlessly build applications. These modules are also reconfigurable and can be updated according to operational needs. Enterprise low-code platforms usually allow developers to create their own custom modules and share them in the enterprise as reusable company assets.

Low code shortens development time

Low code = less code leads to faster development time. Developers can improve work efficiency by using low-code development platforms. However, this does not necessarily mean that low-code developers will be invested in more development projects. On the contrary, it also provides an option that allows more time to collect requirements, collaborate with stakeholders, iterate end-user acceptance testing, and finally deliver a product that is easier to accept and love by end users.

Low code allows smooth collaboration

Business users and developers view a project from different perspectives, but they both contribute value, and cooperation between the two should be encouraged. Low-code development platforms can promote collaboration between developers and business users by providing visual design tools that business users can explain and understand.

For example, design tools like flowcharts can be used to design business processes. From the perspective of a business user, a flowchart represents the logical flow of high-level functions performed by a person or system. From the developer's point of view, each node in the workflow may represent an event that will trigger a service that contains some logical form before transitioning the workflow to the next step. The same design tool can enable business users to understand whether the design is suitable for the needs of the business process, as well as the needs of developers who execute the development environment of the workflow itself.

Low code can run in the cloud and locally

Many low-code development platforms operate as SaaS-based solutions in the cloud. Cloud-based solutions can be established quickly and require little maintenance. However, many companies prefer or may even specify an internal option so that they can deploy applications on their own public cloud providers (such as AWS, Google, or Azure), or deploy applications behind a corporate firewall on a local area network. There may be many reasonable security, privacy or technology-related reasons behind the choice of internal deployment.

Will low code replace developers?

The low-code development platform has become increasingly powerful. However, their purpose is to make developers more efficient, not to replace them. The reality is that the low-code design is to replace repeatable processes and functions. The processes and functions specific to specific use cases still require some hand-written code. Low code may allow you to achieve 99% of the progress, but the remaining 1% is the most important for the completion of the work, and ultimately your project or business process is different from other projects or business processes.

Using a low-code development platform, developers will spend more time completing higher-value tasks, such as collaborating with related parties, understanding business requirements, and iterating user acceptance testing to produce solutions that deliver special values.

How can the development team maximize low-code tools?

Cultivate a culture of cooperation

Determine how business users participate in low-code development projects as early as possible. For example, business users can provide assistance by designing business processes directly in the low-code platform itself. Since both business users and developers use the same design environment, developers will be able to quickly identify issues with the proposed design and give feedback or request clarification on the proposed implementation.

Democratized development

Low-code platforms can provide developers with greater flexibility in the tasks assigned in the project. In some cases, front-end developers may become full-stack developers and vice versa.

Ideally, if the low-code platform also supports multi-language development, then you can have greater flexibility in the talent pool and develop projects based on this talent pool.

Look for opportunities in low-code platforms

Remember, low-code tools exist to help developers. When a platform is used reasonably, the developer's work efficiency will increase, and time can be allocated for other important things, such as collaboration with related parties.

Quell fear

By this year, the market value of the low-code market will be close to 15 billion U.S. dollars, and it will not slow down in the short term. But this doesn't mean that developers should be afraid of low code-far from it. The establishment of the LCAD platform helps make their lives easier and avoids the trouble of writing repetitive, cookie-cutter codes. Developers should find a way to use the LCAD platform instead of worrying about such damage. This is a great opportunity for them to maximize their development time and find time-saving ways to build other products and applications.