On Wednesday, Nov. 13, at 11 a.m. PST/2 p.m. EST/7 p.m. GMT, @eWEEKNews will host its 80th monthly #eWEEKChat. The topic will be “The High/Low on No- and Low-Code Development.” It will be moderated by eWEEK Editor-in-Chief Chris Preimesberger.
Some quick facts:
Topic: #eWEEKchat Nov. 13: “The High/Low on No- and Low-Code Development”
Date/time: Nov. 13, 11 a.m. PST/2 p.m. EST/7 p.m. GMT
Tweetchat handle: You can use #eWEEKChat to follow/participate via Twitter itself, but it’s easier and more efficient to use the real-time chat room link at CrowdChat. The page will magically turn into a live chat at 10:59 a.m. that morning, and you’ll be able to see the conversation in real time. You can choose to participate or follow, whichever you prefer.
Special Guest No-Code/Low-Code experts who will be online with Chris Preimesberger:
- Jason Bloomberg, President, Intellyx
- Mike Hughes, Chief Evangelist, Outsystems
- Praveen Seshadri, Founder of AppSheet
- Kobie Botha, Chief Product Officer, JourneyApps
Why No- and Low-Code Development Is Increasing in Value
How much time and money can an enterprise save if the development of IT becomes democratized and aided by direct input from those who actually use corporate apps on the job? The answer, my friend, is: “Quite a bit.”
It’s not that anybody is against the idea of using code in information technology. After all, nothing would work at all without all that carefully crafted computer literature. In fact, code and data together make up the lifeblood of all computing.
Over time, however, IT experts have found ways to preconfigure and embed code snippets into applications so that people using the apps have everything set up for them in order to save time and effort. Because so much good software has already been written and doesn’t need to be reinvented each time it is installed, the idea of “no-code” or “low-code” application development—built upon the idea of reusing existing application components with instructions on how to fine-tune them—has become an important thing. This is not necessarily new, but it certainly has been reborn.
No- and low-code development signifies software that’s complicated under the hood yet has a user interface simple enough for line-of-business employees to modify and use. With low-code development, non-IT folks can build and customize standard business applications and make them directly relevant to the business they do every day—at their desks or on location somewhere else. Drop-down menus and wizards used in an intuitive fashion are the keys to low-code. Changes are made in real time so that results can happen in real time.
No- and low-code is parallel to something we’ve been covering in eWEEK for a while: citizen development, in which non-IT personnel at companies are able to customize all or parts of a business application to make using it a better, more satisfying experience for everybody concerned. This can add a great deal of value to call centers, for one example among many.
Companies that are competing in this space include Appian, AppSheet, Webalo, Dell Boomi, JourneyApps, Outsystems, Pegasystems, Google, Progress, QuickBase, K2, Appery.io and several others.
It’s All About Agile Development
This all folds into the idea of agile development—refreshing apps as often as necessary to keep them sharp and as effective as possible. Workers on the front lines—the ones who actually use these apps in their business every day—don’t have much time to reconfigure software, but they can make adjustments on the fly when necessary.
In this month’s #eWEEKChat, we’ll be asking the following questions:
- What low- or no-code platforms and applications are you currently using at home and at work? What is working well, or not so well, for you?
- What new no- or low-code functions and products would you like to see become available?
- What issues are you seeing—and solving—in low-code app development?
- Do you see this becoming more mainstream in the future? Why or why not?
- Can you offer an example of a low- or no-code application that you work with, or have worked with previously?
Join us Nov. 13 at 11 a.m. Pacific / 2 p.m. Eastern / 7 p.m. GMT for an hour. You can follow the conversation, participate if you like and get to know the community of eWEEK readers with whom we enjoy interacting. You also can expect to learn something valuable to take away to your own job.