Way back in 2012, Gartner analysts declared that “We’re all developers now,” referring to the proliferation of low-code platforms that allow non-technical users to create business applications and services within their organizations. According toGartner, by 2024 74% of organizations will be using at least four low-code development tools for app development and citizen developer initiatives.As digital transformation has accelerated in recent years, the term “citizen developers” was coined to describe the rapidly evolving roles that non-technical developers play within their organizations. In this article we will look at what citizen development is and the important role that non-technical users will play in driving digital transformation.
What is Citizen Development?
Gartner defines a citizen developer as “a user who creates new business applications for consumption by others using development and runtime environments sanctioned by corporate IT.” A 2015 Intuit Quickbase report,The State of Citizen Development Report, describes citizen developers as “empowered problem-solvers from the various lines of business who have the drive and determination to engage in app development even though they lack traditional coding skills.”To put it simply, acitizen developer is a non-technical user that creates automation solutions for his or her organization.
Why are Citizen Developers Critical to Digital Transformation?
COVID-19 unexpectedly accelerated digital transformation by at least 6 years. Due to the rapid acceleration, Moreover, IT departments are commonly understaffed, overworked, and often have limited access to resources.This is true even of large organizations. For example, General Electric has an IT team of some 10,000 technicians but continues to struggle with the demand gap. In with GE’s Global CIO, Chris Drumgoole, he declared that citizen development is the most transformative concept in IT today.
