What If Professional Developers Start Using Low Code Platforms?

What if you, as a (super professional) developer, don’t have to write any code? You’ll log in to your computer, open your browser and start clicking, dragging & dropping features in an application.

I asked myself lately, “What if I don’t write any code as a developer”?

This question came after seeing Microsoft show their new Power Platform lately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik6k89WNjuk

What is Low Code / No Code

A low code or no-code platform offers non-developers a place to create applications without the need for any programming or IT background.

No code platforms offer their users a drag-and-drop interface to build applications without the need for writing code. With these platforms, you don’t need any experience with developing applications.

Low code platforms need a little bit more programming skills. Most platforms give you a bit more creativity over the process. You can position all the elements of the application and have more power over the data.

These platforms offer more customizations and even let you use technologies like JavaScript, CSS, Sass, Rest APIs, Google Cloud, Azure, Docker, and more.

A few example’s of low code / no-code platforms are:

Growing popularity

Last years there is a growing demand for professional developers. The COVID pandemic has accelerated that growth even more. A significant number of companies had to take action and made a lot of their processes digital.

But there are not enough professional developers to fill the spots of those vacancies. The solution, low code, and no-code platforms.

More people with little to no programming skills can build much software to help businesses grow and scale with those platforms. The development time will be much shorter than traditional software development.

Even Microsoft recently announced new features in their Power Platform for building advanced applications. When a company like Microsoft takes the growing demand for developers seriously, we all have to take it seriously.

I can imagine that companies without a bunch of developers also need their processes digitalized. Low code and no-code platforms are here to stay if you ask me.

But what role is it going to play for professional developers? Are we going to be replaced by citizen developers? Or are we going to work together?

I think the last one!

Pros & cons for businesses

For the business side, there are a lot of pros to using low code platforms.

Citizen developers can develop applications
Applications development takes less time
Most platforms have subscription models to pay monthly
No programming skills needed
Less time spend on maintainability
Security is done by the platform owner
It’s running in the cloud

But there are also a few cons. Maybe more like considerations to take into account.

There is less technology flexibility
Tight to what the platforms offer
Need custom work for not out-of-the-box features

Pros & cons for professional developers?

If a company decides to start using a low code or no-code platform, professional developers have many pros.

You don’t have to invent the wheel
Less time spend on code quality and maintainability of the code
Shorter development time
Can be more accessible to integrate with AI systems
Don’t worry about performance
Less human errors

The first response of a professional developer will most likely not be too optimistic. We love coding and building excellent applications with our hands (and brains). So from a developer perspective, there will be cons indeed.

Less flexibility
Less choice over technologies
It’s running on a platform, not on its hardware (cloud)
Building applications with a GUI will require a different mindset
Some things can’t be changed

This list could go on and on. 😅

Conclusion

Let’s face it all. There is a massive growing demand for developers. In the IT industry, we can’t grow enough professional developers. So we have to be realistic that software development in the future will be more relying on low code and no-code platforms.

But we will get used to it. Working together with some less nerdy people like we are, is also fun. Even better, I will be sure that some professionals will like to use these platforms because it will take the heavy lifting from their back. It will save them a lot of stress and pressure.

Let’s embrace the changing future of these platforms! Let’s build remarkable technology as fusion teams! Because software is, in the end, all about people!

If you want to read more about the growing low code platforms, read the post “Why low code software development is eating the world” by The Hosk

Thanks!

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