What is low-code development? A Lego-like approach to building software

The trend of enterprises swapping traditional software development approaches in favor of agile and DevOps, which enable programmers to quickly build and continuously upgrade software in coding sprints, is widespread. But these approaches aren’t the only options CIOs have at their disposal to fuel faster application creation.

Developers are increasingly using low-code development platforms to arrange application components, including data and logic, via a drag-and-drop interface — think virtual Lego blocks that users can move around with a mouse and a cursor.

Low code differs from no-code development, in which so-called citizen developers, often business analysts with little to no programming experience but who are knowledgeable about business processes and workflows, use similar drag-and-drop tools to arrange applications. With low code, developers may still need to do some coding to integrate access to older applications, for reporting, and for special user interface requirements, Forrester Research analyst John Rhymer wrote in an October 2017 research report. (For a deeper look at low code, read technologist Steven Koh’s explanation, here, and Jason Bloomberg’s article distinguishing low code from its no-code cousin, here.)

The total market for low-code development platforms, offered by vendors such as Salesforce.com, Appian, Mendix and others, will hit $21.2 billion by 2022, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 40 percent, according to a vendor report Forrester published in November 2017.

The time savings associated with low-code development is potentially significant for companies trying to release software before their competitors. For example, 31 percent of application developers Forrester surveyed cited challenges in meeting business requirements in time as a result of using traditional coding with programming languages, frameworks and middleware to build bespoke applications.

Technology managers discussed the virtues of low code in their software delivery efforts with CIO.com.

Shell Downstream CIO Craig Walker, who is overseeing a digital transformation that includes a shift from on-premises software to cloud services, says low-code development software has reduced time from conception to proof-of-concept, enabling the company to deliver apps to market faster.

“I can drag and drop a few things and someone can look at that data and say, ‘Wow, that tells me something I didn’t know,'” says Walker, adding that his team uses low code to build customer portals and other digital services for the company’s mergers and acquisitions, retail, human resources and sales and marketing units.

Walker says the shift — a departure from years of coding custom applications — comes in response to disruptions in the energy industry. He adds that Shell only writes its own code when it aims to differentiate with intellectual property or to develop services that may yield a competitive advantage. 

7-Eleven turned to low code to supply product pricing information to regional managers who visit as many as 10 stores a day. The convenience store retailer, which operates 10,000 retail locations in the U.S., constructed a field price optimization app that enables its regional managers to access pertinent sales, says Paul McCollum, a 7-Eleven technology officer. The managers, who access the data from laptops, tablets or smartphones, can then work with the franchisees to bolster sales and improve product placement in stores.

McCollum says low code allowed him to mimic a lot of enterprise-grade functionality for the app, which replaced a cumbersome Excel spreadsheet. Also, when a manager notices incorrect pricing information, he or she can click a button to send a report to a store notifying them to update their pricing. “The low-code component is that fact that I wrote it in four days,” McCollum tells CIO.com.