The way we approach app development is being completely transformed by low-code and no-code tools as they advance and achieve new levels of sophistication.
We’ve already observed an increasing adoption of low-code app development practices in enterprises when working on different projects and tasks. Their role has become vital for the survival of businesses, especially now that companies try to pave their way to decreased expenses and increased productivity in times of global recession, skyrocketing inflation, high development costs, and a shortage of experienced, full-time software developers.
Why low-code is becoming the ultimate solution
Low-code tools bring a new, modern, and automated way of building mission-critical applications. Therefore, major low-code app development adoption comes as no surprise. The worldwide market for low-code development technologies is projected to total $26.9 billion in 2023, an increase of 19.6 percent from 2022, according to a recent forecast from Gartner.
To understand why enterprises perceive low-code app development as a strategy for their business survival and effectiveness, let’s look at some of the key benefits low-code app development offers enterprises.
1. They provide effective risk governance and easier management
One of the biggest advantages of low-code development is that it can help companies foster better risk mitigation. Why? Because low-code tools offer a visual development environment for building applications, reducing the need for manual coding, which is traditionally more error-prone due to bugs, inconsistencies, etc.
[ Also read 4 IT skills to grow in 2023. ]
In addition, low-code development streamlines version control processes and audits, ensuring:
- Better, easier, and faster ways to track changes and increase process efficiency
- Compliance with app requirements, regulations, policies, and customer demands
- More time-effective product development life cycles and faster time to market
2. They help achieve better development workflows
Think for a moment about this - an app that usually takes months to build can now be pushed live in a matter of weeks. Since these platforms typically provide drag-and-drop interfaces and deliver pre-built UI components, they allow developers to focus on solving business problems rather than writing code from scratch. As a result, they get quicker and more efficient app development cycles and faster deployment and iteration, making for a fully agile model for innovations.
3. They improve collaboration between fusion teams
Low-code development allows teams and vendors to adopt a single source of truth, improving collaboration between teams. Reducing legacy applications and multiple tools used by designers, programmers, and stakeholders makes it easier for team members to share information, work together on projects, and coordinate their efforts.
For example, an app builder that integrates an entire design system bridges the gap between designers and developers, eliminating the handoff process. This way, entire apps can be easily generated, letting the dev team preview and inspect the automatically generated code in a single click alongside the rendered end product.
4. They help leaders overcome industry and business challenges
The IT industry is in the clutches of a global recession while still suffering the aftermaths of the COVID-19 pandemic, and at the same time, trying to overcome the software developer shortage crisis. These factors fuel low-code adoption even more.
By delivering WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) app development experience through reusable drag-and-drop components, low-code platforms help enterprises:
- Cut additional development costs from unexpected technical challenges, changes in project requirements, third-party tools and integrations, rigorous testing for quality assurance, and bug fixes
- Provide a more flexible work environment
- Overcome tech talent and development skills shortages by enabling citizen developers to participate in less complex tasks
- Enable IT engineers and more experienced programmers to focus on business logic and strategic efforts
Undoubtedly, low-code development will rapidly gain even more popularity and increased adoption among enterprises, with expectations that by 2024, low-code will be behind 65 percent of the entire app development process. In challenging times when achieving cost reduction and optimization is a must, low-code app development provides plenty of benefits as it ensures cost efficiency, streamlined app design and development processes, proven ROI, and more straightforward adaptation to the dynamics of the IT world.
[ Learn the non-negotiable skills, technologies, and processes CIOs are leaning on to build resilience and agility in this HBR Analytic Services report: Pillars of resilient digital transformation: How CIOs are driving organizational agility. ]
