How are you solving business challenges with low-code/no-code tools?

Great question Jody. Here are my top 3 insights/reflections, from implementing the CoE:

1) Start small and build on successes. Executive buy-in and access to funding was a huge challenge at first. To get over this we had to get some small wins and 'sell' the heck out of the returns to engage interest and eventually get funding for the CoE. (Find the most interested Exec, deliver benefits for them and use that support and success to grow)
2) Choose the right people for the CoE. You need folk that are entrepreneurial and that can manage in chaos. No matter how much you train business-users to build their own tools, or how simple the tech seems, remember that there are folk that struggle with formatting an email. Your CoE team has to be able to effectively manage and guide these types of users without them getting frustrated and scuttling the initiative (which can cost credibility, support and funding)
3) Have some rules in place. At the end of the day, the tools that are built have to be auditable and risk managed. It pays dividends in the long run to have some rules, guidelines and standards in place to help manage this. For example, in addition to user support guides, my team created a document that outlined some basic rules around SharePoint/Nintex usage such as department administrator roles, data governance and access control for applications built using the tools etc. (always be prepared for the 'what if' questions from Internal Audit and others)

One of my other early lessons, was to be agile, use agile techniques, but not to call it agile. There was still so much misunderstanding around what agile actually is, that it often detracted from what we were actually trying to accomplish.

Hope this helps.

Wow. Fascinating. Some time ago I took on a project that emphasized no code and low code. We evaluated vendors and picked the most promising at that time. If others would like to know the vendor, I will share their name privately. The project was put in-place to stop shadow Information Technology (IT) behavior. A Division had budget, they hired their own IT crew and at the end IT staff had to support, train, patch, update, secure, and evangelize the new app that no one knew anything about. I admit the project was a success since all users were trained on the tool and folks were excited that they could move data from one box to the other box without asking IT. They were also excited that they were allowed to think about their customers and not IT. So why did the movement die? IT took over support of the app. There was no value - career wise - in investing the time and energy in tool that did not follow industry standards and industry tools for building critical IT apps. Second, the code underneath needed support and there was no two way binding were a code change was reflected on the front end. You had to use the tool - no exceptions. Also, apps that remained small were fine. Apps that grew in size needed additional support from the vendor and the tool. So, usage of the tool worked; it wowed the customers with agility; it gave the citizen developer a strong feeling of ownership but there was a point when IT was needed and this is the area that lacked the most support.

Very interesting Gilbert. Thanks for sharing. Sounds like you got some great user adoption which is always fun to see and feel the excitement. If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently?

Hi Jody. No-code and Low-code are different concepts. No-code help create simple apps quickly, normally through the use of "drag-and-drop" functionalities and templates. However, if you need to create complex, enterprise-level applications, at some point you will have to "write" some code. Here's where low-code software development platforms come to action. They are a high-level language that allow you to describe the business rules and processes in abstraction and then code generators and AI create the code, the programs and the databases automatically. Forrester has predicted that in 2021, 75% of the software houses will adopt low-code given the urgent need to create software in an agile way left by the pandemic. You can check GeneXus (https://www.genexus.com/en/) which is what I believe the longest standing low-code platform in the market. Hope it helps!