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Organizations across the globe are struggling with the urgent need to undergo digital transformation to build resilience for the times ahead. On top of that, The IT landscape is constantly changing—with technologies like big data, cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly being included in everyday business applications.
As a result, it is becoming difficult for businesses to cope; the rising demand for advanced technologies and new ways of working require more expertise and have led to a shortage of skilled software developers.
A Primer On The Software Developer Shortage
Speeding up digital transformation is imperative for businesses’ survival; but a software developer shortage is leading to a longer time-to-market. IT teams are overworked and are constantly receiving requests for more apps to be developed. In fact, a recent Gartner survey shows CIOs consider lack of talent a barrier to the adoption of 64% of emerging technologies. So, it’s clear the skill gap is slowing down digital transformation and affecting operational efficiency.
Another survey, by McKinsey, shows nine out of 10 employees feel their organization faces skill gaps or is likely to develop them soon. For one, that’s because CIOs struggle to develop effective technology solutions to improve customer experience and update legacy systems. And, though organizations may have an enormous applicant pool, they cannot find candidates with the right skills. (Also read: Smart HR: How AI is Transforming Talent Acquisition.)
Developing more digital products in less time is the need of the hour—but the skilled developer shortage prevents organizations from achieving their development goals. As such, companies must focus on reskilling and retraining employees to close skill gaps. The reskilling approach, however, must not be limited to the IT departments; companies must focus on creating hybrid roles and upskilling employees specializing in non-technical functions.
How Low-Code Platforms Can Help
While reskilling can certainly help, using low-code technology for automation might be key to bridging the gap between IT and business teams.
App development is democratizing and, in turn, helping build a workforce of creative citizen developers who have extensive functional knowledge and experience. They can use their business acumen and problem-solving skills to develop software they need using low-code application development platforms. This will help them solve their teams’ specific challenges and speed up the automation and digitization of processes. Low-code platforms also have a short learning curve, so organizations can identify and train such talent. (Also read: Is No-Code Development About to Go Mainstream?)
Low-code technology’s agile development helps plan, build and deploy apps with minimal coding knowledge. Thus, it is perfect for quickly developing prototypes and testing them using your existing workforce. Organizations can leverage low-code platforms’ advanced capabilities to build an internal community of citizen developers.
Low-code platforms offer the following advantages to organizations:
1. It Makes Development Visual.
The low code platform’s drag and drop functionality enables citizen developers to build apps with features they need.
The platform’s components are linked using workflows and require minimal programming knowledge. Industries such as healthcare and banking, which are facing a shortage of skilled developers, can use these low-code platform capabilities. This will reduce development costs significantly while accelerating time to market. (Also read: How Virtual Reality Is Changing Healthcare.)
2. It Facilitates Collaboration.
Low code is a powerful tool that helps teams collaborate effectively.
Cross-functional teams can work together to share real-time feedback and shorten development cycles. Plus, higher transparency in the process helps align teams and offers better quality control. For example, teams can build or upgrade the apps they need within short timelines; and business teams can collaborate with IT teams to evaluate mock-ups and innovate existing apps to meet specific project needs.
3. It Comes With Pre-Built Data Models.
Low-code platforms come with pre-built models, making it easier to develop more applications in less time.
Low-code platforms also allow citizen developers to build new modules or upgrade existing ones to meet additional business requirements. Pre-tested low-code templates integrate easily with existing systems, which eliminates the need to rewrite code and reduces the number of errors and bugs to be fixed.
Conclusion
Low-code platforms have the potential to help companies do more with fewer developers. In addition to cutting down the time required for software building, these platforms improve collaboration among teams. Pre-built modules enable anyone to build and design an app by using a visual builder instead of writing all the code.
In other words, low-code platforms give organizations the agility to quickly respond to market changes. They are an effective solution to meet the ever-increasing need for app development and positively impact the ROI of the organization over time.
