Can you imagine if you could build an app for your business without having to hire developers?

It's not a dream—it's called citizen development, and it's changing how companies around the world are starting to approach enterprise application development. Citizen developers are non-IT-trained employees who can use low-code or no-code platforms to build apps that automate manual business processes and modernize legacy applications.

In this article, we look at 10 things you should know about citizen development.

1) The Backstory of Citizen Development

Citizen development is not a new concept, but it's only recently become an accepted practice across most organizations. The idea is that by giving employees access to the necessary tools and training, you can empower them to create new applications rather than wait for IT departments to develop them from scratch.

In the past, there were some significant barriers to entry for people who wanted to participate in application development because they would generally work under the radar to develop apps. They came to be called ‘shadow IT’. Citizen development removes those barriers so anyone can get involved in an IT project without worrying about whether or not they're qualified enough to do it.

Read “Citizen Developer – Are You the One? to understand more about who are Citizen Developers, and what proficiencies they ought to have. 

2) Benefits of Citizen Development

Citizen development has grown in popularity over the last few years—for a good reason! Its main benefits are:

• Reduction of time-to-market for new business applications
• Better flexibility and agility to adapt quickly to market changes and customer needs
• Increase in efficiency thanks to an improved user experience
• Increase in the number of features and functionalities of existing solutions
• Reduction of costs as Citizen Developers somewhat reduce the need to hire professional developers
• Increase in employee satisfaction and motivation
• Development of a high-performance culture by giving employees the freedom to innovate, experiment, and develop solutions
  
  

To expand your Citizen Development program beyond simple proof-of-concept apps, listen to our podcast Sustaining Citizen Development beyond the Hype

3) Common Challenges

As more organizations consider adopting citizen development, it's important to be aware of some of the challenges associated with it:

• Lack of resources and training
• Lack of governance and compliance tooling in the chosen platform
• Lack of talent and expertise to build, deploy, and maintain the platform
• Lack of tools to measure impact, performance, and ROI
• Lack of commitment from leaders to support the initiative
• Poor Change management

4) Citizen Development Tools

Citizen development tools offer a way of developing apps or solutions quickly while still maintaining the quality needed.

There are many types of citizen development tools, including:

• HPaPaaS (High Productivity application Platform-as-a-Service)
• iSaaS (Integration Software as a Service)
• iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service)
• LCAP (Low Code Application Platform)
• Citizen Automation and Development Platforms 
• Multi-experience Development Platforms (MXDP) 
• Robotic Process Automation (RPA) 
• Intelligent Business Process Management Suites (iBPMS) 

5) Citizen Development Framework by PMI

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has created a set of vendor-agnostic educational resources that can help more people, business users in particular, become citizen developers. Its “Citizen Developer Portal" is a toolkit that serves as a three-in-one reference guide for organizations that plan to implement citizen development in an organized way.

This PMI framework is designed to help organizations create a citizen developer program, train r employees on how to become citizen developers, and enable the community of people who are not developers but want to learn how to develop apps and cloud-based solutions.

6) Relevant Statistics

Citizen development is a way to empower employees and give them a voice within your organization, which can result in increased productivity, morale, and retention rates.

Citizen development statistics indicate that:

• 86% of IT decision-makers cite a shortage of software developers as their biggest challenge in digitally transforming their business. Hence, citizen developers can help fill this gap.
• The global low-code development platform market is expected to grow to $187 billion by the end of 2030.
• By 2024, 75% of large organizations with citizen development initiatives will use four low-code-no-code tools.
• One in four company executives believes that the most important investment to make when it comes to automation is low code platforms.
• A significant portion—450 million—of the 500 million apps to be developed over the next five years will be built using no-code or low-code platforms.
• Low code and no code automation can drastically reduce the time (up to 90%) it takes for a custom mobile app to be developed.

7) Impact on IT

Citizen developers can become a valuable asset to IT as they can help reduce the backlog of app requests.

Many organizations need help developing apps and capabilities to compete in the market. However, they don’t have adequate number of professional developers due to budget constraints.

This is where Citizen Developers come into play: they bring a fresh perspective into an organization's technological operations and help solve complex problems using their skill sets (often gained through self-learning). Today there are almost no companies around that don't use citizen developers at some level, whether they call such people a Citizen Developer or not!

8) Citizen Development Value

In the digital age, it's more important than ever to make sure your organization has the right tools in place to support its mission. You need to think about your company's digital infrastructure—and how it can help your employees do their jobs better.

Citizen development brings value to your organization by creating a system in which every employee can contribute to the growth and success of your organization. Rather than having a few people who are responsible for all of the innovation, everyone can take part in making their improvements and seeing their ideas come to life.

9) Enabling Citizen Development 

Citizen development allows organizations to move faster than ever before and create an environment where change is not only accepted but also encouraged.

• Create a culture of citizen development in your organization
• Create a platform for citizen development where employees can participate
• Use tools that are easy to use and understand
• Train employees on how to use the tools
• Deploy tools that support IT governance and change management
• Work with employees to create a development plan that addresses their needs and how they can contribute to the organization

Conclusion

The possibilities for citizen development are endless. Organizations can gain a competitive edge when they have full control over their automation – without the need for expensive traditional high-code development.

If you're ready to take your first steps into citizen development, there is no better time than now. AgilePoint NX Getting Started Training provides a thorough introduction to the enterprise-class low-code/no-code automation features and capabilities.

For businesses of any size, AgilePoint provides a complete business automation platform that can build applications and workflows to optimize resources, improve performance—and maximize efficiency. Start with AgilePoint by getting your free trial today.