Fear of automation (automation anxiety) has existed since the 16th century. It has been a major driver of negative attitudes toward technology and machines (also known as technophobia). With more sophisticated low-code and no-code development solutions on the horizon, even software developers face bouts of disquietude related to their job security.Â
While low-code solutions have the power to improve customer experiences rapidly by automating redundant business processes, can they replace developers altogether? The following guide will attempt to peer into the future of low-code development by analyzing current trends and upcoming advancements.Â
Understanding Low-Code Development’s Recent PopularityÂ
Low-code describes tools, platforms, and other technologies that allow you to build applications with as little coding as possible. Many of these platforms let you build entire web or phone applications through a drag-and-drop interface.
However, most small-to-medium size enterprises use these low-code tools to build simple background services to help optimize employee workflows. Recently, we have seen the popularity of rapid software development and deployment methodologies such as Agile and DevOps.
Many businesses have begun to integrate cross-functional collaboration models to optimize these pipelines. This has spawned multidisciplinary development teams known as fusion teams. These teams often consist of a mixture of software developers and non-tech business analysts who may not have coding experience.
IT leaders have found that the best way to bridge the gap between fusion team members is through low-code development platforms. Many of these platforms have begun to roll out new features to facilitate smooth collaboration between fusion teams as well.
Low-code platforms have always been used to create rudimentary solutions to urgent business problems. However, recently, they have advanced to address new problem domains. Â Â Â
A Brief History of Low-Code
Microsoft Access is one of the earliest examples of a commercial no-code/low-code tool. It allows you to build databases using forms and other graphical tools. The tool was originally intended to help users build small personal databases without using SQL (or Transact-SQL). However, workers began sharing these Access-created databases among their peers.
Eventually, large companies would start building entire workflows around these databases. There are many reasons why this may become a liability for these companies. Using a fully specialized relational database management system such as Microsoft SQL or MySQL is the safer bet.Â
Organizations must still use the services of experienced software developers and database administrators. These professionals can ensure that databases are secure and compliant with standards such as HIPAA and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Thus, despite Microsoft Access allowing non-technical users to create databases without any knowledge of SQL, programmers were still required to connect the dots. Low-code tools such as Access allowed business users to develop concepts and prove markets before bringing in developers to expand on the core ideas.
Developers would then remodel the data (for optimization) and build applications around these Access databases. Â
The Current State of Low-Code Development
Today, more involved and sophisticated low-code development platforms (LCDPs) can be used to build desktop and mobile apps. We have seen low-code tools empowered by cloud-native SaaS applications, allowing users to build scalable architectures easily. These LCDPs can allow you to build custom mobile, desktop and web apps that can satisfy advanced use cases such as accepting payments or simple ones such as restricting access to certain content. Â
A software developer’s focus is to write code; that is their daily life. Thus, they may not have the on-the-job experience of the professionals or the use cases they write applications for. Who is more equipped to write robust medical apps than doctors and other medical staff? Who can fully sympathize with the plight of construction workers better than other construction workers?Â
That’s why the “citizen developers” movement has become so prominent. In fact, research conducted by Gartner revealed that over 41% of non-IT professionals customize or build their own software solutions to address business problems. Despite these statistics, businesses still need the input of developers. The problem domain has just evolved.
Where Do We Go from Here?
As sophisticated as LCDP and NCDP tools are becoming, they still have their limitations. In the future, businesses will be able to address these limitations in a couple of ways.Â
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Machine learning and artificial intelligence will be highly influential in the direction of low-code/no-code technology. Platforms like Microsoft’s AI builder already provide a low-code approach to building machine learning-powered automated software. You can then integrate these template-built ML models into your business applications or software stack.Â
We have seen how they have been used in medical and veterinary communication software to automate scheduling and communications. Thus, LCDPs can be used to make machine learning more accessible to non-coders.Â
However, machine learning can also make low-code platforms more effective. For instance, ML-powered data mining can be used to find the latest updates and the best solutions to business problems. It will allow NCDPs/LCDPs to provide more relevant and tailor-made suggestions to citizen developers. Â
In the future, it may be possible to build an automation process or application by simply supplying a specification through text, a UML use-case diagram, or speech. This allows for more flexible project composition options. Â
Improving the user experience is one of the most important priorities of IT leaders today. Machine learning paired with low-code will help businesses rapidly address these challenges. Â
Hiring Professional Developers to Overcome Low-Code’s Limitations
Eventually, business owners and non-IT staff run into problems that low-code solutions simply cannot address–at least not out of the box. In these situations, it would be best to hire a developer.
Enterprises will still require the services of professional application developers for more involved and complicated use cases. This will be the case even with machine learning and artificial intelligence powering future low-code solutions.Â
The truth is while business users may hold a deeper understanding of the relationship between business objects, only trained and experienced software developers can efficiently implement these concepts in code.
Thus, no-code will not bring about the extinction of the professional developer. Instead, it will facilitate improved collaborations between citizen developers and professional developers. This is especially important for medium to complex projects.
Security Must be Addressed
The industry’s recent trends and heavy emphasis on cybersecurity and network security are another reason why software developers will not become obsolete. For instance, many developers have found that they need to pay more attention to API security, thanks to uncovered vulnerabilities in APIs such as Log4j.Â
As such, they must integrate security earlier in the development pipeline to prevent any possible data leaks and breaches. Most low-code tools use APIs to build applications. Unfortunately, citizen developers cannot secure their applications the same way professional application developers can. Even as LCDPs receive security updates regularly, it may not be enough to protect business applications from future cyberattacks.
Again, this is why collaboration between citizen and professional developers is so important. Only the latter can truly ensure that business software is secured appropriately.
Better Collaboration is the Future of Low-Code
Future no-code and low-code tools must be able to easily promote collaboration between professional developers and non-developers. These platforms should provide relatively easy and secure ways for developers to access code to modify and extend it as freely as possible. Â
In most cases, software developers already have frameworks and tools that they prefer to use for their workflows. From IDEs, CI/CD automation to testing software; low-code platforms should be able to plug into or interface with these established environments and tools.Â
Again, this attribute is extremely important, especially with the sweeping popularity of development and delivery methodologies such as Agile and DevOps. These techniques and models require smooth collaborative action between cross-functional teams. The more flexible an LCDP, the better. We’ve seen how unnecessary programming constraints of modern LCDPs can obstruct progress in cross-functional settings. These shortcomings must be addressed. If LCDPs/NCDPs fail to do this, their existence in the market will most likely be short-lived.
Conclusion
We do not see low-code platforms completely deprecating professional software developers in the near (or far) future. However, they will change how developers build software. Business and job requirements for programmers will evolve too as low-code has the potential to improve collaboration between developers and non-developers.Â
Citizen developers can use low-code tools to model what they want for their final product before allowing experienced developers to expand and build upon these ideas. Thus, these low-code development platforms must be accessible and easier to use for citizen developers but less restrictive and more flexible for professional application developers. They must allow professional devs to code more freely. This will be the focus of low-code platform developers in the coming years.
