These days, the demand for business applications - apps that can speed business processes, improve productivity, and reduce cost - far exceeds the ability for IT to deliver. Which explains why more companies are turning to low-code platforms that enable non-IT employees to build their own apps. After all, these "citizen developers" know the business problem that needs solving better than anyone else.
Low-code platforms let departments create their own innovative solutions for business productivity - all while reducing demand on developers within IT.
But not everyone is cut out to be a citizen developer. Here’s how to identify good candidates, and give them the knowledge, skills, and motivation to build apps that meet their particular business challenges.
Find your citizen developers
"A good citizen developer candidate has the right aptitude and attitude," says Mark Tognetti, director, platform outbound product management, ServiceNow.
"The right aptitude — you are looking for folks who are comfortable with technology. For example, they're used to creating complex Excel spreadsheet macros or lightweight SharePoint sites. And you want employees who understand how automation can help their department's processes and goals, and deliver value across business units."
The right attitude is also key to identifying good citizen developer candidates.
"Look for two primary things," says Tognetti. "One, they are interested in learning. Two, they understand that being a citizen developer is a partnership with IT, rather than in opposition to IT or as "shadow" IT.
Not every employee who decides to become a citizen developer might finish the education and training to go on and create low-code apps, Tognetti notes.
"It depends on how much thought is put into promotion and selection," he says. "If you open it up to 'anybody can apply,' maybe 50% make it through the training. If you are a bit more thoughtful about who you approach and recruit, accepting employees that have the motivation and need to create applications and automate work, then I see at least 80% success rates."
You also need support from the managers of citizen developer candidates." One key to encouraging employees to become citizen developers is promoting the value proposition to potential candidates' managers,” shares Tognetti. “ServiceNow provides interested employees with good talking points, like: ‘Here’s how to save time for people in our department,’ ‘Here’s how this will help our tasks get done more quickly,’ and ‘This will let us address our own app requests immediately.’ The core ServiceNow team may even join the conversation with the employee’s manager to help explain the value associated with being part of this program."
Employees who complete low-code training tend to fall into two categories:
- They have a specific business process they want to automate. Once they have done that, they tend to take off their developer hat until their app needs an update.
- They understand the value of ongoing development and keep on building apps. They even might look to expand their developer skills as they automate more business processes.
Tognetti adds that some citizen developers, "get excited about creating business apps enough to make becoming a professional developer a new career track.”
Fitting low-code into a workload
The process of becoming a citizen developer should ideally be associated with overall professional growth and fit into the overall "bucket" of training employees are expected to take.
According to Jon Huang, director of product marketing for Creator Workflows at ServiceNow, the company offers online resources for learning its App Engine low-code tool as part of becoming a citizen developer, including:
- On-demand training on "What is Low Code" (50 minutes)
- Core level skills (Beginner) training (3 hours)
- Advanced level skills (Intermediate) training (8 hours)
Aspiring citizen developers are then given access to a free developer instance of ServiceNow’s App Engine, so they can try building an app. It usually takes between five to ten hours to create their first application, according to Tognetti.
Set up your citizen developer program
When putting a low-code program in place, Tognetti advises that you keep the playing field open. "Make becoming a citizen developer accessible,” he says “Don't make the barriers to entry too high." To be successful, leaders should:
- Make it easy for employees to apply to become citizen developers. Explain the learning process, the resources available, and the value to an employee’s department, the company, and to the employee’s job and career growth.
- Provide employees with realistic l learning goals, rather than setting the training bar too high.
- Encourage employees to apply to become citizen developers and help them articulate the value to their managers.
- Offer citizen developer certifications or "digital badges" for their LinkedIn and other profiles. (For example, ServiceNow offers a Citizen Developer Application Creator micro-certificate as one of its Micro-Certifications, and the Project Management Institute offers citizen developer courses with digital badges.
"Like any new initiative, it's a journey," says Tognetti. "So start small, get it right, get some wins—an application or two finished, deployed, and showing benefits. Then start promoting awareness of those wins to grow visibility within the company. Soon you’ll recruit more citizen developers who will deliver the benefits of low-code apps to your organization."
