← Field Notes

Sink or Swim: Creating Space for Citizen Developers

March 20, 2024

Enterprise Architects have their hands full, which is why you can understand their hesitation with the prospect of unleashing into the world a swarm of citizen developers.

Enterprise IT must enable employees to become more than just users of AI, but rather co-creators shaping AI in new ways.

Doing so changes the conversation between business users and IT.

Before: "I need a solution that does XYZ -- can you build it for me?"

After: "I built a solution that does XYZ -- can you hyperscale it for me?"

Yet Enterprise Architects (EAs) have been apprehensive about betting their careers on low-code tools for citizen developers.

You might hear:

"It's a platform for children."

If you've grown up from green screens to Serious Development Environments, it's off-putting to think that anyone with a few months' training can build a full-stack application. Nevertheless, that's now the case.

And let's not turn up our noses at the concept of a platform for children. We have an entire generation who grew up on Minecraft and who are now entering the workforce. A platform for children sounds like exactly what we need. Sign me up!

"It's too risky."

If giving low-code development tools to employees is too risky for enterprise deployment, how do you explain the fact that the largest Power Platform customers are military/defense organizations and oil/gas supermajors?

There are numerous ways to mitigate the risk. One smart approach is a "driver's license" requirement, ensuring that anyone building solutions has been trained in safe development practices.

There's no shortage of implementation partners who can assist with governance, enablement, and training for a citizen developer workforce.

"My ERP already has low-code tools."

That's true, you don't necessarily have to be a pro coder to develop business processes and workflows within various ERP systems.

But can you say that those tools are accessible to the entire scope of business users throughout an organization? That is, can anyone in the organization build a mobile app or a workflow or dashboard that draws on ERP data sources? It depends on the organization, I suppose, but I'm guessing that most organizations seeking to customize their ERP deployments rely heavily on specialists.

A low-code toolset should be paired with low barriers to entry. Personally, I've benefitted from the accessible learning paths, vibrant community resources, and applicability across functional areas found in Power Platform. If you're considering ways to upskill an entire workforce with low-code capabilities, you need to think about horizontal and vertical transferability of skills.

"We can buy rather than build."

If you buy AI solutions, the risk is that you cede to your vendors the compounding benefits. Every year, AI technology will get exponentially smarter -- but will your licensing fees get exponentially smaller? I don't think so.

To capture year-over-year efficiency gains from AI, you'll need to learn how to build solutions yourself. Or at least work with partners who can assist in that aspect of the journey.

"Stick to Excel."

Absent low-code tools, people will build expansive Excel spreadsheets. Excel is a great tool for individual use, made even better with Copilot for Microsoft 365. But it's no match for the shared dashboards, scalable business processes, and secure, and auditable databases that you can build with Power Platform.

Everyone in the pool

While we might not expect Enterprise Architects to be the most vocal promoters of the Citizen Developer trend, neither should they stand in the way.

There's just too much at stake, with too many business leaders standing to benefit from improved results along with benefits in their own careers by using AI capabilities to drive business value.

Conceptually, building AI-powered business solutions is well within the capabilities of business analysts who are not professional coders. You don't need to ask IT whenever you create a new spreadsheet. You don't (always) need to ask IT to set up a conference call. And even if that's how it was done in the past, in today's world you shouldn't need to drag in IT specialists to stand up a functional database with custom interfaces, business process workflows, or even a public-facing website.

How to create space for Citizen Developers

From there, it's sink or swim -- not just for employees, but for the enterprise itself.

If you were (or are) an Enterprise Architect, would you give the green light to Citizen Developers? Let me know in the comments!

I'm about a week away from finishing my three-month PowerUp training course. (I'll share my thoughts about that next week, along with notes on the final project.)

I'm aware that taking on the role of functional consultant or developer would be jumping into the deep end of the pool -- or more accurately, into the deep end of the ocean. That's why I'm planning to continue my upskilling journey by learning skills related to Microsoft Fabric, Azure AI, and related technologies. I'll write about my progress here.

Meanwhile, I expect that my writing skills, drawing upon extensive knowledge across domains in enterprise technology and financial services, are still in high demand. I'm #OpenToWork!

My ideal customer would be an organization that builds and deploys low-code enterprise solutions. I'd be more than happy to bring my writing skills to the table, with an eye towards taking on a more cross-functional, consultative role as my active skillset evolves.

Do send me a note if you have any leads, opportunities, suggestions, or words of encouragement. I'm always glad to hear from you.

← Field Notes