Thoughtworks’ 28th Technology Radar pointed out that the low-code platform capabilities in the market have made great progress in recent years, but they are still mainly focused on solving problems in low- and medium-complexity scenarios< /span>, when faced with complex business scenarios, there are still certain platform restrictions. Therefore, it is recommended that enterprises carefully evaluate the balance between their own needs and low-code technology before considering adopting low-code technology - and use low-code platforms within boundaries.
Main points
Low-code adoption is growing, but it only works in certain scenarios, not all.
Low-code is considered an alternative to traditional development processes and practices. But decision makers need to understand its limitations and build appropriate safeguards around application development.
Before deciding whether to choose low-code, ask the right questions to determine whether it is a good fit for your specific application needs.
Low-code tools and platforms that enable diverse teams to create valuable software systems without having to write and maintain large custom code bases have earned low-code tools an almost equal number of supporters and detractors.
However, some projections suggestthat by 2025, the proportion of new applications created using low-code tools and platforms could be as high as 70%. And the ongoing developer shortage is pushing companies to explore new ways to speed up software delivery and reduce workload, so more and more organizations are beginning to explore what low-code can do for them.
The capabilities of low-code tools and platforms have grown significantly in recent years, but skepticism remains — and with some justification. Although low-code tools have the potential to empower a new generation of so-called “citizen developers” and reduce the pressure on development teams by enabling simple functionality through low-code, the fact is that they are still not suitable for every development scenario.
The first step in determining whether low-code is right for you, and ultimately reaping the value it might bring to your business, is to understand what scenarios it is best suited for.
When (and when not) to use low-code
There are many factors that drive organizations to adopt a low-code approach to development. Here are the four most common scenarios, and how low-code fits in each:
Scenario #1: Dealing with a developer shortage
With global demand for development talent still far outstripping supply, the prospect of tools that enable users to build powerful software is compelling. But choosing to adopt low-code technology simply because your organization lacks mature development and coding skills can cause unnecessary trouble.
Without skilled developers and IT experts to oversee what business teams create using low-code, you end up with “software without strategy”: Business units may continually customize different applications to address digital needs, but they are There is almost no correlation or aggregation between them. This would be an unscalable scenario and completely inconsistent with leading practices such as platform thinking. IT leadership needs to develop strategies and take appropriate steps to allow the development of low-code applications or solutions where appropriate, enabling business users to operate without creating large complex issues (technical debt, unscalable systems, etc.) Solve important issues below.
Scenario #2: Support rapid business growth
For early-stage expansion, low-code can help create new features and services quickly without having to invest significant development resources, which in turn ensures that their software does not become a bottleneck for the organization's rapid growth.
However, these organizations need to realize that some of the solutions they create using low-code platforms may eventually have to be replaced. Otherwise, they may find that core parts of their infrastructure are built on inflexible foundations. And this is really a challenge for many applications built using low-code.
To get the most value from low-code, growing businesses should use it to quickly create the features they need, but plan and be prepared to replace them with more powerful features when they are no longer needed at some point in the future. .
Scenario #3: Building new core business software
The more critical the software is to your business, the less likely low-code will be the first choice for building and maintaining it. This is not because low-code lacks the power or sophistication to build critical applications, but because such applications need to be able to scale, grow, and transform easily, and not all low-code platforms and tools have this capability.
Even if your app is originally designed to be low-code-friendly, if it's extremely important to your business, there's a good chance the design will need to evolve in the future. You may need to add more complex functionality, integrate it with other applications or migrate it to a new enterprise platform. These things become more difficult if collaboration between business and IT is not properly planned.
Scenario #4: Enhance business unit capabilities
If your goal is to give business units greater technical autonomy and empower them to become citizen developers, adopting low-code tools is a great way to do it. Most low-code tools and platforms are user-friendly and teams can quickly start managing and enhancing functionality to meet their needs.
It’s important to note that even if they have the most intuitive tools at their disposal, IT departments should be involved in the selection, planning, and scaling of low-code tools. Not all low-code tools are created equal, and it’s important to choose tools that are sufficiently extensible, scalable, and can be integrated into the broader IT ecosystem.
The importance of balance
When low-code first emerged, much of the narrative surrounding the technology positioned it as an alternative to traditional development—one that would reduce or even eliminate an organization's reliance on skilled developers.
This description turns out to be completely untenable, both in terms of the unrealistic expectations it sets for low-code and how it positions low-code and traditional development processes as enemies or antagonists.
The question shouldn't be "Low code or traditional code?" but rather "Where can low code best support and complement our expert developers?"
By enabling and encouraging low-code in the right scenarios (often enhancing software features used by small business teams), you can accelerate delivery, reduce cycle times, and quickly meet business needs without completely scrapping current development practices.
Enhance business unit capabilities and accelerate delivery while retaining all control, governance and strategic input provided by core IT and development teams. It's possible to have the best of both worlds, but only if you strike the right balance.
Five questions leaders need to answer before choosing a low-code platform
Before you start choosing a low-code platform or toolset, it’s important to determine whether low-code is a good fit for your current business and needs.
You'll need to do some in-depth evaluation, but answering these questions will be a good starting point:
(11) How many people will use the software you are building?
More users means more needs to adapt, and it has the potential to become the organization's core business software and expand beyond the low-code security zone (needs to be evaluated in conjunction with traditional development).
(2) Do you want to build core software or supporting (edge) software?
The closer your software is to your core business, the more important it is to keep it as flexible, scalable, and inter-system relevant as possible—and you need to re-evaluate whether to apply low-code techniques at all to build and maintain it.
(3) Will the software you build now become critical as adoption continues to increase?
If you already know that the software system you need to build or modernize is extremely important to the business, this is probably not a low-code use case, unless you are willing to accept the limitations of a low-code platform.
(4) Is your team ready to become citizen developers?
For low-code to realize its full potential, your team needs to be enthusiastic enough to adopt it and start creating their own applications. They also need to have certain software application proficiency and the right mindset to create truly valuable applications.
(5) What problem do you really want to solve?
For example, if you're looking to clear a large backlog of work, there may be better ways to achieve this than going low-code. You may be trying to fix process inefficiencies rather than addressing the underlying challenges. Of course, you can still define specific needs that can be met with a low-code solution.
Low code isn’t a panacea, but it can teach us a lot
Low-code is not a replacement for code. If an organization abandons its development team and completely hands over development control to business teams using a low-code platform, they will be very limited in achieving their goals.
But for specific scenarios, low-code is still a very powerful technology. It provides a means to quickly fill capability gaps, brings new possibilities for edge software construction for some user groups, and enables business teams to DIY the applications they need when needed.
By combining low-code with traditional coding and development practices, organizations can empower citizen developers without sacrificing the flexibility and scalability required by core software. This is the real beauty of low-code applications - applied in specific scenarios and solving very specific business unit needs; overseen by IT experts, and applied in conjunction with traditional development practices and resources - rather than replacing them.
The definition of low code
There are many platforms calling themselves “low-code” – but what does that mean? In our experience, low-code is often used to describe platforms that allow users to create business logic and interfaces using methods such as visual drag and drop.
Generally, they are more configurable and customizable than no-code platforms, although there is considerable overlap between the two. Low-code tools also often allow some (small) amount of "real" code - often a so-called scripting language such as JavaScript - to perform tasks that conventional visual drag-and-drop tools cannot, such as more complex business logic.
Domestic ones with good cost performance includeJNPF low code, a developer-friendly low code platform, mainly for domestic users, compared with foreign countries The developed HRM/Admin/CRM/CMS and other backend tools have UI interface designs that are more suitable for domestic business scenarios. It also integrates a number of common domestic data sources, including Feishu, Enterprise WeChat, DingTalk, Alibaba Cloud OSS, etc. It provides tenant management, fine-grained permission control, audit logs and other functions commonly used in enterprise internal systems, which can not only quickly build back-end applications, but also protect information security.
If you have never tried low-code, I recommend giving it a try.