The rising demand for software and the shortage of skilled developers has forced organizations to embrace citizen development. Citizen development programs allow non-technical employees to develop custom software apps for themselves or their teams with minimal or no coding skills.
Citizen development is most prevalent in HR, operations and admin, RD, finance, and customer service. This framework expands your company’s pool of developers and brings expertise and unique insight into the software development process. Learn more about the citizen developers meaning, definition, and FAQs below.
Who is a citizen developer?
A citizen developer is an employee with no/low coding knowledge who creates software applications for their team or others, using low-code/no-code platforms without the involvement of IT. Citizen developer is a persona and not a role. They build apps in runtime environments with development methods approved and sanctioned by IT.
Every citizen programmer has a different set of skills and knowledge in their respective fields but little to no experience in coding. They are problem solvers driven by change and have some moderate tech skills. The individuals use no-code and low-code platforms to bring their ideas to life using drag-and-drop interfaces.
Learn more: Citizen Developer vs Professional Developer
Why companies should invest in citizen developers
Regardless of its size, your company can benefit from citizen development. You can optimize your workforce and resources to solve specific business problems. Here’s why every company needs to invest in citizen it developers:
Reduces IT backlog
The increasing need for business apps means IT teams have an ever-increasing to-do list. When IT teams are unable to deliver solutions on time, work stalls, and creates huge backlogs. Citizen development enables business users to create their own apps and can greatly reduce the burden on IT.
Cost-effective
Citizen development decreases software maintenance costs and maximizes existing resources. It also saves companies money they would have spent hiring professional developers or purchasing third-party applications. By streamlining systems and integrating data, the costs are driven down.
Build apps faster
Market conditions are constantly changing and thus, organizations are forced to release products and services faster. This can easily be achieved with a citizen development framework where non-IT employees use a low-code/no-code platform to build apps at the desired speed and deliver high-quality services.
Increases efficiency
When employees are empowered to become citizen developers, their job satisfaction increases along with their productivity. With less dependence on IT, business users can handle their own requirements. This speeds up the process, and reduces bottlenecks, thereby increasing your organization’s overall productivity.
Learn more: Busting the Top 5 Myths In Citizen Development
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