Could your new superstar software developer already be on payroll? The cloud-enabled, low-code/no-code platforms your business uses every day make it increasingly likely.
Traditionally, enterprise innovation came from higher-ups or back-office IT folks. But these times we’re living in are anything but traditional. Innovation is becoming decentralized. Its center is shifting, edges expanding. One Gartner VP, Jason Wong, told CIO the citizen developer movement “enables self-service business innovation, which ‘democratizes’ business transformation,” boosting workplace agility and productivity.
Mind Over Machines’ latest on-demand webinar tracks The Rise of the Citizen Developers. In just 35 minutes, Marketing Director Annie Cassidy and VP of Innovation & Strategy Tim Kulp will walk you through who these citizen developers are, how cloud computing is fueling what they do, and how you and your IT department can plan for and support their contributions.
Citizen Developers: Who & How
Citizen developers are users from a variety of different business units (outside of IT) who are using corporate IT-sanctioned tools to create new business applications that enable them and their colleagues to work smarter.
People are natural problem solvers. They know the kinks in their workflows, the inefficiencies in their processes. Most of your employees may not know how to write code, but if you give them intuitive, visual process-driven development tools, they will put them to work. That’s why the low-code/no-code revolution is catching on like wildfire. And it’s only one of the tech trends underpinning citizen developer innovation. Tim lists other “tools of the trade” and gives you examples of each in the webinar.
Citizen Developers: Then & Now
It’s an interesting time to examine the citizen developer phenomenon. Back in 2015, TechBeacon said the fledgling movement was born out of “the clash between business needs and shadow IT.” It was users and IT professionals partnering to preserve the pros of shadow IT (users’ needs being met in a timely fashion, IT unburdened to focus on larger challenges) while eradicating the security and stability risks.
Now, TechRepublic reports our pandemic-created physical and economic constraints have led to an explosion in low-code platform adoption. Citizen developers are essential to keeping up with demand for all things virtual/remote. In late 2019, Gartner predicted citizen developers would outnumber professional developers at large enterprises 4-to-1 by 2023. Given the events of 2020, it’s hard to imagine that ratio doing anything but increasing.
IT’s Responsibilities
Innovation’s Edge: The Rise of the Citizen Developers webinar has all the basics of citizen developers, how they are shifting the center of innovation and why that’s a good thing, but it is not a theoretical discussion. Tim and Annie’s purpose here is to guide your thinking and planning so you can create an intentional citizen developer program. Tim presents different models for how to identify, structure and nurture your citizen developers. Along the way, you will assess where you are currently and determine the best path for your company, emerging with a playbook to make it all happen.
Transforming users with deep business knowledge and experience into application developers is powerful. It will be a boon to your business, but only if you make the necessary investment. IT has a critical, ongoing role to play. It must enable, empower and protect your citizen developers. Grab a notebook and get ready to learn exactly how to do that. Watch the on-demand webinar now.
