Since the popularity of low code in 2020, the controversy surrounding this new software development model has never stopped.
Mainstream voices believe that low-code theoretically has the characteristics of low development threshold and ease of use , which can meet a large number of software development needs of enterprises in digital transformation .
But those who hold the opposite view claim that low-code is "old wine in new bottles". They question that low-code is a pseudo-demand, and at the same time believe that low-code platforms hide huge transformation costs.
In the initial stage of a nascent industry or a fresh concept, debates and doubts are essential. The key is whether the track will decline or stumble forward with the controversy.
Judging from the current development, low-code is still in the forefront. Next, the author will introduce the advantages and disadvantages of low code without prejudice, so that everyone can understand low code more intuitively.
1. Disadvantages of low code
Let’s talk about the disadvantages of low code first.
1. Weak ability
The low-code platform itself is a development framework, and what can be created on the platform largely depends on the capabilities of the framework itself . At the current stage, many low-code players are fighting in the field of enterprise collaboration with BPM (business process management) and BI (data analysis), so it is no wonder that many spectators regard low-code as "toys".
But at the same time, it should be noted that, on the one hand, even "toys" can provide a great boost to the informatization transformation of many enterprises ; The future of complex applications and changeable C-terminals can be expected.
2. Low flexibility
Although many low-code platforms claim to be flexible and address the individual needs of enterprises, the premise is that they are within the scope of the framework. If the individual requirements happen to be outside the scope of the framework capabilities, the cost and time for secondary development cannot be underestimated. If the low-code platform chosen by the enterprise is just not open enough, the strong dependence on platform support and upgrades will make the enterprise suffer. This is the so-called "lock-in". In terms of source code support and iterative upgrades, the current JNPF development platform on the market is relatively good, with a conscience and high cost performance.
3. Developers are not friendly
Many low-code platform frameworks are black boxes for developers, which brings two major problems to developers. One is that the work is difficult, and the other is that there is no future .
1) The hard work is that once you encounter bugs, performance and other problems during development, because you don’t know the internal implementation logic, you can’t start troubleshooting. Code debugging needs to switch interfaces repeatedly, and you can only waste time staring at the platform support. The full source code supported by JNPF can solve this problem very well.
2) There is no future because professional programmers are highly dependent on low-code platforms, and neglecting Coding will cause their ability to deteriorate, which means unemployment and abandoning the future in the long run.
Professional developers are extremely important participants in the low-code ecosystem, and how to let professional developers voluntarily enter the game is also a challenge for low-code platforms.
4. It is difficult to change the concept of the business side
Ordinary business personnel are key users of the low-code platform, but for the business department to use the low-code platform, at least three thresholds must be crossed: technical threshold, psychological threshold, and motivation threshold .
1) Technical threshold , with a little technical content and a certain learning cost, you can stop many people;
2) Psychological threshold, many people will refuse to accept it out of fear of new things and learning;
3) Motivation threshold. In the past, the business side could get the software with just a few words, but now let him do it by himself? The laziness of many people is a naked reality.
These three thresholds are by no means insurmountable, but they require effort.
1) To cross the technical threshold, no code can be adopted, but a compromise of flexibility is required;
2) To cross the psychological threshold, the product needs to tell a good story, do a good job in interaction design, and adjust professional vocabulary such as "BPMN diagram, ER diagram, foreign key, function, script" to avoid triggering users' fear;
3) To cross the threshold of motivation, it is necessary to find a scene that is painful enough, and create a sufficiently simple operation method through industry templates, business templates, and interaction design.
5. Application governance, platform performance, etc.
The low-code platform reduces the cost of application development. If the application grows explosively and a large number of applications are used by no one or few people, it will have little business value, but will bring additional cognitive and management costs. At the same time, the increase in the number of applications and users will also bring challenges to platform performance. In addition, the user's pursuit of personalized front-end presentation and the platform's solidified front-end presentation are also a contradiction that needs to be dealt with.
In short, low code is a good thing, and the framework itself can greatly improve efficiency, but at the same time, it also has some problems. Don't want to "success is also framed, and failure is also framed".
2. Advantages of low code
After seeing the disadvantages of many low-code platforms, don't be discouraged. Let Christensen cheer us up first. He defined " disruptive innovation " in "The Innovator's Dilemma", that is, a cheaper and more convenient alternative to existing products in the market , which serves low-end consumers or new consumer groups, and gradually erodes The market share of traditional products will eventually replace the dominance of traditional products. Whether the low-code platform is a disruptive innovation, we will wait and see.
1. Cost reduction
It mainly includes 3 aspects, learning cost, development cost and other costs .
1) The reduction of learning costs can be operated by ordinary business personnel, and it can reduce labor costs for enterprises with insufficient IT R&D resources.
2) The reduction in development costs means that developers can reuse existing capabilities and reduce time-consuming low-value codes. At the same time, many requirements changes can be realized through configuration, which shortens the development, operation and maintenance time.
3) Other costs such as communication costs, testing costs , and even cloud architecture to reduce hardware costs .
2. Efficiency
It mainly includes two aspects, delivery efficiency and collaboration efficiency .
1) Delivery efficiency
A batch of new or changed requirements can be met through configuration, directly avoiding low-value code development time, and it is not an exaggeration to increase development efficiency by 10 times. At the same time, it also means a great improvement in customer response efficiency, which is more important than development efficiency!
Although there is still a development workload that cannot be fully met by configuration, a considerable part of the development workload can be saved because the platform capabilities can be reused. The efficiency improvement data depends on the specific scenario, but in general, the benefits brought by reuse Efficiency improvement is undeniable!
Due to the reuse of platform capabilities, the end-to-end delivery time will be greatly shortened, such as the test time, integration release time, etc. will be greatly shortened, and the improvement of engineering efficiency will make it possible for low-code to evolve beyond DevOps to NoOps.
2) Collaboration efficiency
communication efficiency. A requirement delivery involves many people, such as business personnel, product managers, developers, testers, etc. With the help of low code, many requirements may be realized in the content of the business department. Fewer people need to communicate, and communication efficiency will naturally increase.
Naturally agile and lean. The core keywords of agile pursuit, such as "early delivery", "fast feedback", "response to changes" and other low-code platforms are born. Through configuration and fast delivery, the program can receive business verification as soon as possible, get feedback quickly, and timely Adjustment. The core keywords of lean pursuit, such as "value", "elimination of waste", "built-in quality" and other low-code platforms are also born, low-cost and fast verification, focusing on business design rather than program design, through business focus, standardization Eliminate activities that do not generate value-added value, such as reuse, less people, etc., and ensure the quality of all applications through the built-in quality of the platform itself.
3. Quality improvement
There is an absolute truth in the bug world, "the less the code, the fewer the bugs" . The amount of code required to develop applications on a low-code platform determines that the amount of bugs is extremely small, or even, "No Code, No Bug".
The low-code platform is also similar to the "middle platform". An expert development team creates high-quality code that is easy to evolve. Adopt the concepts of " reuse" and "unification" to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and break isolated islands. Similarly, low-code platforms also need to be alert to the "middle platform trap". They intended to "empower" the business, but unexpectedly it became a bottleneck and the business was "incompetent".
4. Value
It mainly includes three aspects, which are highly suitable for business, alleviate the plight of low-value demand resources, and enhance the value of programmers.
1) Highly suitable for business.
A good B-end product is not functional, but it can just solve the current problems of customers. This requires that the product can adapt to customers of different maturity levels, rather than a standard solution that goes all over the world. The author has held this concept to help many provinces and operators to develop a collaborative platform, and provide different solutions for different customer maturity levels. Traditional standardized products cannot support this concept, but low-code platforms have this ability. One of the author's beliefs in low-code platforms also stems from this experience.
Derived to introduce my family's products, JNPF development platform, is a full-stack development platform based on SpringBoot+Vue3, using micro-services, front-end and back-end separation architecture, based on visual process modeling, form modeling, report modeling tools, fast To build business applications, the platform can be privatized and deployed, and also supports K8S deployment.
It's always hands-on >understood. Try to build an application yourself: https://www.jnpfsoft.com/?csdn
2) Alleviate the plight of low-value demand resources.
The IT team will always be faced with endless demands. Even if someone controls the ROI, it is inevitable that there will be a frequent occurrence of "the business side is anxious, but they don't need it after going online" . This kind of low-value demand occupies a lot of development resources. Great waste. For low-value requirements, using a low-code platform to meet basic requirements first can improve this dilemma. In addition, you also need to think about a question, "Is the low-value demand really low?" It is difficult to obtain development resources for these low-value demands, and they can only wait forever, but the low-code platform can give these " "Death penalty needs" living space, these low-value needs may be a source of organizational innovation.
3) Improve the value of programmers.
Low-code can help programmers reduce wasting time on low-level repetitive work, so that they can have more time to focus on high-value code, which can go deeper into the business and meet business needs in a more matching way.
5. Internet effect
The ecology of "low-code platform + cloud" has brought the business of program development to the level of the Internet, which has four major effects of the Internet, Metcalfe effect, bilateral market effect, scale economy effect, and synergy effect. This is where the imagination of low-code 2.0 really lies! Break the island of information, let applications and applications, enterprises and enterprises, developers and developers interconnect and communicate with each other, and give a qualitative change to the "reuse rate"!