10 Reasons Why No-Code, Rapid App Development Makes Sense for IT

by Darryl K. Taft

Eighty percent of IT budgets are spent on maintaining existing systems, leaving little room for innovation projects aimed at capitalizing on new opportunities. Yet, demands from the business for precisely those initiatives continue to grow.

TAKEAWAY: IT teams must find ways to support the projects essential to the future growth of the business.

IT teams have historically tackled projects with a single approach that treats all applications the same—whether they’re large core systems for managing commodity processes or apps to support unique and frequently changing business models/processes.

TAKEAWAY: IT needs a strategy to identify and address apps geared toward unique or innovative processes.

While there will always be a need for code, many IT teams are coming to the realization that it’s simply not suited to delivering innovative apps fast or flexible enough. As Forrester Vice President and Principal Analyst John Rymer noted: “If we rely solely on coding, we’re going to fail. It’s too slow. It’s too inflexible.”

TAKEAWAY: IT and the business need a common language for quickly and iteratively turning requirements into software.

Gartner predicts that IT debt—”the cost of dealing with delayed and deferred maintenance of the application portfolio”—threatens to reach $1 trillion globally by 2015.

TAKEAWAY: IT needs to accelerate app delivery to eliminate the backlog and finally move at the speed of business.

According to the Standish Group, 94 percent of large IT projects are either “challenged” (over budget, behind schedule or didn’t meet user expectations) or fail altogether.

TAKEAWAY: IT can reverse project failure rates only with an approach that improves the speed and quality of projects.

A McKinsey survey says only 20 percent of IT professionals believe that IT is effectively driving technology enablement or innovation in business processes and operations.

TAKEAWAY: IT can reverse its perception within the company by more directly involving the business in app development.

New technologies are being introduced at mind-boggling speeds. This rapid change is forcing businesses to seek new sources of innovation and differentiation. And the window to capitalize on these opportunities is smaller than ever.

TAKEAWAY: IT teams need to deliver applications faster and build frequent change into their process.

New players are disrupting established industries with app-driven approaches, focused on continuously releasing new software. To survive and thrive today, every company must think—and act—like a software company.

TAKEAWAY: IT can become a change agent, but this requires greater speed, agility and collaboration with the business.

The convergence of cloud, mobile, social and big data is fundamentally transforming the enterprise. Today’s “always-on” economy requires a high degree of connectedness across people, processes, data and devices.

TAKEAWAY: IT must ensure new apps integrate seamlessly with other systems and work on any device.

Our personal experiences have driven expectations for enterprise apps sky high. Business users demand the same kinds of intuitive and intelligent apps they use every day—apps that are simple, don’t require training, are accessible from any device, and are built rapidly and updated frequently.

TAKEAWAY: IT must fundamentally transform the way it designs, builds, deploys and manages business apps.