Unpredictable times that require fast answers
Few will doubt that Low Code will inevitably take a large market share of app development for business purposes as soon as the next 2-3 years. However, the adoption of this technology will span multiple departments and the adoption of new governance practices if you’re not careful you may risk frustration and delaying the adoption for many years more.
Low code is a great opportunity to boost your company’s digital transformation efforts. Most technologies seem limited to handle basic process automation, but sooner than you may think they’ll all handle most business scenarios. It’s one of those things that makes business sense – To have the ability to develop an app much faster and within the competence of a much larger base of power users.
Nonetheless, adopting a low code strategy is a balancing act. If you put too many barriers from the start, you’ll increase inertia and stifle creativity, on the other end if you leave business users develop apps without a proper framework and governance you’ll probably end ending with an unmanageable spaghetti of redundant information.
So where to start?
As this will span multiple business units and multiple chiefs, you may want to start by creating a sense of desire and urgency through identifying a number of opportunities for digitalization and the corresponding business cases within each unit and showcasing how Low Code can quickly address this and without necessarily going to the IT Pipeline.
In parallel, you’ll need to design a proper governance model for discussion with your peers on how this will be used by your organization, who can create apps, who can set up new data sources, how to lunch and app.
And finally setting up training for the users who will be developing apps, defining UI/UX templates and guideline for all to use.
You should also setup a support office, similar to a PMO to manage the roll out and adoption, continue to fine tune policies, monitor usage and arbitrate priorities.
Regarding users, you must set the right expectation on who will be part of this, as you’ve probably guessed low code will not for everyone to use, it still requires strong proficiency in using a computer, logic thinking and problem-solving skills.
As process automation progresses in your organization, you may consider upgrading some skilled employees on developing new apps and thus accelerating a continuous innovation cycle.
Microsoft Power Platform is a prime contender for your low code strategy as most organizations already have their data security policies in a Microsoft Cloud, as well as user management, collaboration platforms such as email, teams, sharepoint and productivity platforms such as Office.
Additionally, you can benefit from your existing Office 365 licenses for building and using simple apps, avoiding an upfront investment in licenses before you prove the values of adopting these technologies.
SHIFT has been implementing low code solutions and assisting our clients in becoming autonomous since 2017. Over the years, we’ve developed with Microsoft a comprehensive step by step approach to deploying low code strategies in organization. Through a combination of technical experts, strong program management competencies and change management and user support.
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