As organizations embrace digital to become more efficient, stay ahead of the curve, and meet changing needs, their IT teams face increasing difficulty managing the software infrastructure. It is expensive to employ software engineers, and the dearth of skilled programmers imposes extreme pressure on IT teams. As such, many low-code/no-code platforms were developed, and different companies started offering citizen development initiatives.

The citizen development approach allows non-technical individuals to create applications. It also enables non-IT professionals to become software developers by creating business-critical applications on LCNC platforms that meet business requirements. 

Citizen Development: A New Era of Innovation

Citizen development enables people to create apps without mastering complex coding languages. Traditionally, software development was limited to professional developers with specialized skills, almost like having a “secret language.” However, the citizen development platform is transforming this landscape, making app creation accessible to anyone. Successful citizen developers bring strengths in problem-solving, teamwork, and resourcefulness, becoming invaluable contributors in organizations leveraging low-code development platforms to create more applications and business solutions. 

Citizen development leverages intuitive, visual tools that empower anyone to create applications quickly. Features like drag-and-drop interfaces, pre-built components, and simple logic tools eliminate the need for traditional coding, making app creation accessible to non-technical users. The best part? No tech expertise or coding knowledge is required. If you can navigate apps on your phone, you already have what it takes to build your own. The citizen developer platform makes app creation accessible to everyone, quickly turning you into an application creator. 

The Impact of Citizen Development on Business Innovation

Citizen development is already transforming industries, enabling significant cost savings by aligning applications with business goals and optimizing resource utilization. Today, business users use AI and ML in their decision-making process. AI is becoming more accessible with the advent of no-code and low-code machine learning platforms, which enable non-technical users to harness powerful analytics and automation capabilities.

Citizen developer platforms have a broad reach across industries: 

• Healthcare: Citizen developers can build no-code apps for patient management, electronic health records, and appointment scheduling.
• Finance: Financial institutions use no-code apps for loan origination, fraud detection, and compliance management.
• Marketing and Sales: Teams can create and deploy campaigns with no-code apps for lead and customer relationship management.
• Retail: Retail companies leverage no-code apps for managing inventory, customer relationships, and supply chain operations.
• Government: Citizen developers in government offices create no-code apps to improve citizen engagement, service delivery, data management, and workflow automation.
• Manufacturing: Manufacturing companies utilize no-code apps for production management, quality control, and supply chain oversight.
• Human Resources: HR departments use no-code apps for recruitment, employee management, and performance evaluation.
• Telecommunications: Telecom companies employ no-code apps for network management, customer service, and billing systems.

How Citizen Development is Shaping Business Growth?

According to the Forrester report¹, 87% of enterprise developers embrace low-code platforms for their projects. Citizen developers use such tools to solve business problems and, at the same time, superimpose deep industry knowledge with digital skills to create solutions aligned with specific organizational needs. Because of non-IT professionals developing applications, the low-code market is to reach about $30 billion in 2028. It highlights the potential expansion and spread of citizen development adoption in all other industries.

A citizen development strategy seeks a comprehensive approach to execution and outcomes. 

Productivity

Business processes are streamlined by citizen developers based on automation. On such a platform, teams can take up more work and do it more efficiently. Citizen developer’s platforms drive adaptability because they allow employees to incorporate technology into their daily work activities, giving the business enhanced productivity and improving agility.

Employee Empowerment

Citizen development enables employees from various business divisions to create applications utilizing low- or no-code platforms. Users may create effective apps without coding experience through intuitive interfaces and pre-built templates. It empowers those closest to operational challenges to take action and improve processes.

IT and Business Alignment

Citizen development bridges the gap between IT and business users by involving business teams in application development. This collaboration enhances communication, aligns IT and business objectives, and ensures that digital transformation projects address business needs. 

Revolutionizing Business Operations With a Citizen Developer Platform

Citizen development accelerates digital transformation by enabling business units to quickly create and deploy tailored solutions, often within days. It lowers dependency on IT, fosters innovation, and meets the demand for speed in the fast-paced business environment. Citizen development helps businesses respond more swiftly to market changes and customer demands by empowering teams to build solutions independently. 

Several factors explain why citizen development represents an inevitable part of software development. 

• Seamless Integrations: Connect effortlessly with internal and external systems to automatically populate and validate data.
• Effortless Workflow Automation: Simplify processes with adaptive, role-based workflows and access controls. Automate notifications, trigger services within workflow steps, and deliver a dynamic user experience based on defined rules.
• Robust IT Governance: Empower the IT department to oversee and support citizen developers by giving administrators control over who can create and use apps, what types of data can be uploaded, and which services and integrations are permitted.
• Easy IT and Business Collaboration: Enable professional developers to extend and customize citizen-developed apps using technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, fostering collaboration between IT and business teams. 

Navigating App Development Landscape with HCL Volt MX

Enabling employees to create apps should be a key priority for modern technology-driven businesses in staying ahead and developing a digital-first culture. Such opportunities are ideally provided by HCL Volt MX, which offers business users without technical expertise the ability to bypass complicated coding, help minimize IT backlog, and achieve considerable cost savings for the business. It enhances efficiency and agility, accelerating app delivery by 60% while supporting digital transformation initiatives.  
Take advantage of an app development free trial to unlock the business’s full potential! Start transforming processes and speed up the digital transformation today.