As businesses seek to improve efficiency, move towards operation digitization and reduce costs, demand for developers is skyrocketing. Over the past few years, the role of technology in business operations has never been more significant. The demand for developers to build softwares and applications to aid management has grown significantly in the highly competitive business era.
The demand for new softwares far outstrips the resources available to build, Companies are seeking new strategies and adopting technology that can help them close the gap.
Enter the Citizen Developer: employees with little or no formal coding training who can create and customize applications using low-code or no-code platforms.
The rise of Citizen Developers has been significant, and it is a trend that shows no signs of slowing down. With the ability to create new applications quickly and efficiently, Citizen Developers can help businesses become more agile, innovative, and responsive to their customers' needs.
While the idea of Citizen Developers may seem like a recent phenomenon, it has been gaining traction for some time now.
According to Gartner, by 2023, the number of active Citizen Developers in the enterprise will exceed the number of professional developers by at least four times.
This trend is being driven by the increasing availability of low-code and no-code platforms that make it easy for anyone, regardless of technical skills, to build custom applications.
In this blog, we'll explore the rise of Citizen Developers, their growing importance in the digital landscape, and why businesses should care about this emerging trend.
According to a survey conducted by Forrester, 40% of Citizen Developers come from the business side of an organization, while the remaining 60% come from IT departments. This demonstrates that Citizen Development is becoming a cross-functional discipline that is gaining popularity across all areas of an organization.
The benefits of Citizen Development are as high as the rate of their rise.
For one, it can reduce the time it takes to bring a new application to market. According to a study by Salesforce, businesses using low-code platforms can develop and deploy applications up to 6.4 times faster than traditional development methods. This increased speed can give businesses a competitive edge in today's fast-paced digital landscape.
In addition to faster development times, Citizen Development can also help businesses save money. According to Gartner, Citizen Development can reduce the backlog of application requests by up to 90%, enabling organizations to free up IT resources and focus on more strategic initiatives. And that’s why the rise of Citizen Developers is a trend that businesses cannot afford to ignore.
According to a survey by QuickBase, 62% of Citizen Developers believe they can develop an application faster than a traditional developer. Additionally, Gartner reports that Citizen Development can reduce application development costs by up to 90%. This is a significant cost savings for any business.
Citizen Development promotes cross-functional collaboration by giving employees the opportunity to develop their skills and take on new roles. This not only creates a culture of innovation but also improves employee satisfaction. According to Harvard Business Review, employees who feel their company supports their development needs are 40% less likely to leave their job.
In conclusion, Citizen Developers are becoming an increasingly valuable asset for businesses seeking to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and stay ahead of the competition. By embracing Citizen Development, companies can promote a culture of innovation, improve employee satisfaction, and bridge the IT skills gap.
While LCAP is the largest market segment, citizen automation development platform (CADP) is projected to grow at the fastest pace, with a 30.2% growth forecast for 2023.
Typical use cases of CADP include automating workflows, building web-based forms, bridging data and content across multiple software-as-a-service applications and creating reports and data visualizations.