The software industry thrives on hype, which sometimes is true and sometimes false and to be forgotten. As software professionals it's our job to separate the hype from what's real.
Our take on the #lowcode / nocode movement is that - it's not hype, it's a revolution.
Enterprise Software is broken. Every company has a huge portfolio of applications and each application has thousands and sometimes millions of lines of code. Once deployed, it becomes 'technical debt' because it has to be maintained, documented and modified as organizations change. This complexity is slowing organizations down severely.
To manage this complexity there have been many movements - SaaS, Service oriented architecture, API's and also agile movements to simplify this complexity. Even RPA only pushes the technical debt of code handling further down the road. As long as the engine of the underlying application is spaghetti like code, it's always going to be tough to build, change, maintain and hence will slow down business initiatives. Even though software products - Enterprise or SaaS, do not require companies to manage the code during usage, they also have their underlying base in complex code bases.
The movement to reduce code writing started decades back. Object Orientation, reusable components, model driven architectures and PaaS where all improvements in the level of code automation. Each movement learnt from the pitfalls of the earlier one. Low Code/ No Code as we have it now is different and here to stay because of a few compelling reasons
The level of code automation is so high that it is showing real improvements in delivery results in terms of speed, lower effort, lower cost, better performance and better quality. #RapidApplicationDevelopment is a reality now.
#DigitalTransformation initiatives from companies are no longer sporadic. Top management are gunning for results, forcing IT leaders to look for transformative rather than incremental solutions.
End users, business analysts, product managers and a number of 'citizen developers' want to participate in the development process to accelerate it, and they are actively looking for tools to build applications without coding themselves.
Today, its clear that small applications (single process workflow) can be completely automated. There are enough case studies of complex applications also being auto developed to the extent of 80 to 95%.
It's only a matter of time before all these visible signs leads to a 'must do' transition for business and IT leadership.
The 'nay' sayers may cite a number of technical reasons for complexities that could hinder the transition, but we believe that there are solutions to all of them, some of which have been found and some will be found. It is similar to website building. Twenty years back one would build the entire site using html code. 5 years back you could automate 75% and write code for the rest, but today one can do almost any type of site - simple or complex without writing much code. The same will happen for serious enterprise software.
Our experience in the past decade, in using Stragiliti (www.Stragiliti.net), our low code platform in delivering solutions to customers is the basis for the above confidence. The level of automation of code is getting continuously higher, the time and effort to develop is lower, the quality and performance is better and customer satisfaction is getting higher.
This experience, backed with evidence in the number of low code players, the spike in valuation of key players and the general consistent interest indicates that this is a revolution and not just hype.