Low Code Development Platform Can Affect Developers?
Instead of using a complex coding environment, low-code platforms offer a user-friendly interface where users can create applications by simply dragging and dropping elements. This inclusive approach allows professionals with varying levels of development skills, subject matter experts, business stakeholders, and decision makers to build powerful enterprise applications that deliver value.
I. Why is low-code platform used?
Systems typically utilize an intuitive graphical user interface and drag-and-drop functionality to integrate various components and third-party application program interfaces (APIs). With this approach, web app builders have the flexibility to rearrange and extensively test modules until the desired platform functionality is achieved.
The rise of low-code development platforms has been driven by the ongoing scarcity of proficient software developers and the pressing need to expedite development projects, enabling businesses to swiftly address their challenges.
II. Benefits of low-code development platform
Low-code development platforms offer several benefits that make them popular among organizations. Here are some key advantages:
1. Speed: Low-code platforms enable quick application creation with intuitive interfaces and pre-configured components. This allows citizen developers to build and launch customer-facing applications up to 80% faster, improving business agility and productivity.
2. Cost-efficiency: Shorter development cycles and harnessing the power of existing talent lead to cost savings. With low-code platforms, coding talent is not required to complete a platform, resulting in reduced development costs.
3. Flexibility: Low-code platforms are user-friendly, but they also provide seasoned developers with the flexibility to add custom code touches. This allows developers to extend the capabilities of the platform and tailor applications to specific requirements.
4. Empowerment: Low-code platforms democratize app development by enabling non-technical users to contribute to the development process. This empowers individuals with limited technical expertise to create functional software solutions, expanding the pool of app developers
5. Effective security and governance: Low-code platforms provide all the necessary security frameworks, authentication mechanisms, and governance controls under one roof. This makes security easy to manage for the entire organization, ensuring the protection of applications and data.
III. How do low-code development platforms work?
In conventional software development, programmers typically write lines of code to create the desired functions and features in a computer program or application. This process demands a deep understanding of computer languages, development environments, deployment processes, and testing protocols.
Low-code development platform encapsulates all the work behind the scenes, usually referred to as back-office functions. Users can visually select and connect reusable components that represent specific steps or capabilities, which contain the actual code, and link them together to create the desired computerized workflow. This allows users to create applications as if they were drafting a flowchart, rather than writing line-by-line codes for each desired function and capability. These platforms also generally include features for experimenting, prototyping, testing, and deployment, with a focus on security to protect the new apps from potential cyberattacks.
Low-code development platforms enable users to design and deploy apps much faster than conventional software development. They offer features like drag-and-drop modelers, pre-built templates, intuitive UI, and visual integrated development environments (IDE), which accelerate application development by enhancing user experience. These platforms also aid both novice and professional developers by requiring little to no coding experience, thus allowing for more flexibility in a developer’s coding background. Additionally, they shorten the application development lifecycle, enabling organizations to accomplish more in less time.
The approach to app development in low-code platforms is often referred to as point-and-click and includes drag-and-drop interfaces to simplify the overall process. These platforms also facilitate the creation of engaging user interfaces and visual logic through intuitive drag-and-drop development environments. They allow for one-click deployment, reusable components, and alignment with Agile methodologies, enabling development teams to build and deploy applications faster, thereby accelerating time-to-market and increasing IT output.
IV. Low-code vs traditional development
Let’s explore these differences in terms of skill set requirements, cost of development, development speed, and application updates and maintenance.
1. Skill Set Requirements
Traditional Programming: Traditional programming requires technical expertise and developers with proficiency in programming languages such as JavaScript, Python, CSS, PHP (for web development), Swift (for iOS), and Java or C++ (for Android).
Low-Code Development: In contrast, low-code development minimizes the need for coding skills. It utilizes an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that allows both non-technical users and developers to create applications. This makes it accessible to individuals with varying levels of technical expertise.
2. Cost of Development
Traditional Programming: Traditional programming can be expensive. It involves upfront investments for infrastructure setup, developer fees, continuous maintenance, and more.
Low-Code Development: On the other hand, low-code development is more economical. It typically follows a license-based pricing model, allowing businesses to pay as they grow. This can result in significant cost savings, especially when compared to the substantial investment required for traditional infrastructure.
3. Development Speed
Traditional Programming: Traditional programming often takes months to go live. This is because teams build applications from scratch through extensive coding and multiple revisions of prototypes, which can be time-consuming.
Low-Code Development: In contrast, low-code development enables faster deployment. Ready-to-use code blocks and templates allow developers to create applications up to 10 times faster. Building off an existing framework in low-code is significantly quicker than writing, debugging, and compiling traditional code.
4. Application Updates and Maintenance
Traditional Programming: Traditional programming requires dedicated labor for implementing the latest technologies across platforms (web and mobile) once the application is deployed. This can be challenging and time-consuming. Low-Code Development:
Low-code development simplifies application updates and maintenance. Hosting companies that provide low-code tools handle automatic upgrades, periodically rolling out the latest updates and features to all applications built on their platform. This eliminates the need for a dedicated team or third-party vendor for updates and maintenance
V. What can be included in low-code platforms
Customer engagement platforms
- Customer relationship management
- Customer service management
- Point of sale(POS)
Mission-critical platforms
- Custom ERP software
- Client portal
- Payments manager
WFH platforms
- Time tracker
- Task management
- Approval software
Data analysis platforms
- Online databases
- Data management software
- BI dashboards
No-code AI platforms
- Feedback analyzer
- Object detection software
- Sales predictor
Line of business platforms
- Operations management
- Supply chain management
- Accounting and financing
VI. Final thoughts
The future of low code development platform
Industry experts predict that low code development will continue to be adopted by enterprises in the future, especially for fast development and specific business needs. However, it is unlikely to entirely replace traditional application development. Gartner projects that the low-code market will reach $44.5 billion in revenue by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.2% from 2021 through 2026. Specifically, the low-code platform segment is expected to expand to more than $18 billion in 2026, with a CAGR of over 20%.
Adoption among different user groups
The use of low-code and no-code platforms is expected to increase among Line of Business (LOB) workers, who may not have extensive programming experience, as well as professional developers who use it for less complex programming tasks. According to Forrester, the top areas for low-code use continue to be business process or workflow applications, web and mobile front ends, and customer-facing applications. Experts also predict that low-code will eventually expand into broader areas such as reengineering technology stacks and ecosystems.
Traditional development and security considerations
Enterprises will continue to practice traditional development for applications that require extensive functionality, data governance, and deployment to specific architectures or environments. Security considerations are among the top issues to address, regardless of how apps or websites are developed. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is also expected to increase steadily, as many vendors now include AI features in their low-code products.
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