Imagine this. You’re using custom-developed project management software that allows you to set task status as ‘to-do,’ ‘in-progress,’ or ‘done.’ To suit your workflow, you need an additional status, let’s say, ‘awaiting approval.’
Traditionally, adding something even as simple as this would require engineering effort, taking a few weeks, if not months, depending on the roadmap.
Not anymore. Low-code development has changed the way software engineering teams work today. In this blog post, we show you how.
Low-Code Development: Enhancing Agility in App Creation
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat is Low Code?
Low code is a software development paradigm with minimal hand-coding powered by graphical interfaces. It is an alternative to traditional development that uses visual development instead of a textual approach to building apps.
It allows developers to drag and drop elements to customize applications. It automates repetitive tasks and improves efficiencies, supporting lean principles of software development.
Low code is not to be confused with an emerging concept called ‘no code.’ Let’s see the differences.
Summarize this article for me pleaseLow-Code vs No-Code: What’s The Difference?
At the most basic level, low code application development needs some engineering skills that no code apps do not. This creates other differences as well.
| Low code platforms | No code platforms |
|---|---|
| Aimed at professional developers | Aimed at business users |
| Used for complex applications that might need additional manual programming | Used for simple applications that can be built with reusable components |
| Complex customizations possible | Limited customizations of predetermined nature |
| Great for legacy modernization | Not suitable for legacy modernization |
| Ideal for applications like websites, mobile apps, internal process automation, etc. | Suitable for self-service apps, dashboards, data pipelines, etc. |
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhy is Low-Code Development Gaining Popularity?
Low code application platforms are projected to grow 20% this year, reaching over $12 billion in market value, according to Gartner. In the agile application development world, low code adds incremental efficiencies.
Large and small enterprises are leveraging low-code development, reaping several benefits. Here’s why.
Speed of development: Low code app development is 40-60% faster. As a result, you can go to market faster, experiment more, continuously improve, and evolve with market needs.
Cost of development: Low code development platforms work by creating prefabricated elements like templates, which can be reused or reconfigured to build new apps. This reduces the cost of developing new applications significantly.
Democratization of app development: Traditionally, only developers with coding knowledge in a particular programming language could build applications. With the visual approach of low code, even business users can build robust and secure apps today.Â
Availability of resources: IDC predicts a shortage of four million developers by 2025. Organizations face immense challenges in hiring, training, and retaining talent. Low code helps overcome this challenge, freeing developers to focus on more complex problem-solving.
Collaboration capabilities: Low code platforms allow business and technical users to work together, building apps collaboratively. They can work on feedback and create value incrementally.Â
Adaptability: Apps built using low code platforms can integrate with external applications and data using secure connectors and APIs. This also makes it easier to connect to the technology ecosystem of vendors and partners.
Maintainability: Low code platforms support all stages of the application development. This means that you can not only create apps, you can also deploy them, have version control, and more.
Summarize this article for me pleaseBenefits of Using Low Code Technology
Low code technology is one of the most powerful app development tools, whether you’re a small or a large enterprise, service or product company, software business, or otherwise. They can deliver transformational benefits such as the following.
Cost savings
The key principles of low code are reusability, repeatability, and automation. Low code saves development effort by repeating processes, reusing components, and automating repetitive tasks. This directly results in cost savings. It also reduces the need to hire large development teams, saving costs further.
Developer productivity
Low code platforms are among the best productivity tools for developers. With low code, developers can drag-and-drop components to build apps quickly. Moreover, simple applications can be developed by business users without the effort of the engineering team.
Time saved this way can be used for complex problem-solving, improving developer productivity and effectiveness.
Training and skill development
Low code platforms are great for new employees, citizen developers, and transitioners. It provides them with the guardrails to make mistakes and learn. It accelerates the development process while allowing them to quickly upskill without needing manual training efforts.
Cross-functional collaboration
A low code development platform brings together business and technical teams, who are typically at loggerheads with each other. It gives them a common language and vocabulary to collaborate more effectively. It also allows them to build on top of each other’s work.
For instance, the business user can create an app that the developer can update/refine on the built-in code editor.
Organizational agility
The ability to build apps quickly at low cost allows organizations to create products and take them to market faster. They can also make adjustments and enhancements to existing apps based on market feedback.
Maintenance and governance
Low code allows teams to add patches, make improvements, and follow regulatory compliance quickly. It also creates structures for governance functions such as authentication, authorization, data privacy, etc. It helps DevOps and agile teams handle ongoing operations more efficiently.
Employee experience
Low code tools are widely used for developing internal applications such as a human resource management system [HRMS]. This eliminates friction in internal processes and improves employee experience.
Despite its many benefits, adopting low code is not without its challenges. Let’s see what they are and how you can overcome them.
Summarize this article for me pleaseLow Code Use Cases
UI design
Design teams create user interfaces with reusable components such as buttons, backgrounds, colors, shapes, etc., with low code platforms.
Employee portals
Internal apps that deliver self-serve experiences, such as claiming reimbursement, applying for leave, booking travel, etc., are perfect use cases for low code.
Legacy modernization
Organizations with legacy applications already have their business logic and data figured out. A low code platform helps modernize the application quickly and efficiently. When replacing legacy apps is not possible, low code can be used for extensions and integrations as well.
API generation
Low code API generators can automate one of the most time-consuming tasks in software development and legacy modernization.
Prototyping
Before investing time and energy into developing a production-grade application, organizations use a low code platform for rapid prototyping or creating the minimum viable product.
Reporting
Low code platforms are perfect for integrating data sources and building custom dashboards without additional engineering effort.
Business-level customization
When business users need a specific customization, low code platforms can help. Business users can add or edit what they need without involving the engineering team.
Summarize this article for me pleaseChallenges of Integrating Low Code Development and Technology
As an emerging rapid application development methodology, low code is stuck in the evaluation stage in organizations because it poses new and unique challenges.
- Limited freedom: Custom code offers infinite freedom to build anything that low code apps can’t
- Platform constraints: Whichever low code platform you choose, you are limited by its functionality. This means that you can only do as much as the platform allows you to
- Vendor lock-in: Most low code platforms aren’t interoperable with other platforms, making the cost of switching too high
- Integration limitations: Modern low code platforms might not work well with legacy software, creating complexities that developers must handle
- Scalability: Apps built using low code platforms might not be scalable for enterprise requirements
- Cost: Low code platforms might have complex cost structures, demanding that you pay extra for additional features you need
Given these challenges, choosing the right low code tool for your needs becomes extremely critical. Here are some valuable pointers.
Summarize this article for me pleaseHow to Choose a Low-Code Tool?
Before you look for a low code tool, outline your requirements clearly. Ask yourself:
- What do you intend to use the tool for?
- Who are the users of this tool?
- What applications do you intend to build?
- What use cases should it serve?
- How much are you willing to spend?
- What are your measures of success for the low code tool?
Let’s say you want your business users to build simple customizations and enhancements into your project management tool. You need the following features.
Workflow automation
Every team has its own unique business processes and workflows. Several of these can be automated with simple if-this-then-that triggers. Choose a low code platform that allows you to set up these workflows to be executed automatically.Â
ClickUp Automations is a no code tool that allows you to set up triggers to automate workflows for various use cases.Â
For instance, you can set ClickUp to change task status each time a sub-task is completed. Or automatically assign a task to a user based on the status change. Or create a task when someone fills a request form for software teams.
Complex relationships
Today’s projects have complex and interconnected tasks that impact each other. Your project management tool needs to accommodate these relationships. It must enable you to connect tasks or documents, add dependencies to tasks, link resources, and embed external tools.
ClickUp offers no code relationship management across all artifacts. With ClickUp, you can create links between tasks, documents, and dependencies to access everything you need in one place.
Integrations
While using multiple tools for your various business needs, you can not afford to get engineering help whenever you need them to work together. Your project management tool needs a low code way of integrating with external applications.
ClickUp integrates with over 1000 applications without you needing to write any code at all. From communication tools like Gmail and Slack to productivity apps like Harvest and business tools like HubSpot and GitHub, ClickUp can plug and play with almost anything you can think of.
Many of these are two-way integrations. This means you can set up automation triggers to update the external tool from ClickUp or vice versa.
Dashboards
Project management software is only as good as the visibility it provides to the various stakeholders. To get a 360-degree view of their project, managers need customizable dashboards that present the insights vital to them.
ClickUp’s custom charts allow you to visualize your work any way you want without additional coding effort.Â
With ClickUp, you can choose from over 50 widgets that track time, tasks, progress, workload, sprint, and more. You can also convert your dashboard into a calculator for sums, averages, and more for any of your tasks.
Use these agile templates as inspiration for the dashboards you’d like to build.
Performance boosters
Quality of work depends on standards that teams set for themselves. Despite their best efforts and a well-made checklist, some items fall through the cracks. A good project management system can avoid this with clever automation.
ClickApps—ClickUp’s pre-built no code apps—enable just that. Here are some examples.
- The dependency warning allows you to be notified before closing tasks that are waiting on others
- The incomplete warning prevents you from closing tasks that have unresolved subtasks, comments, or checklists
- The Who’s Online? app allows you to see who is online for a quick catch-up in real-time
Customizability
Every app you use comes with an inbuilt set of features. What if you need those features but a wee bit more? For example, an agency might want a custom task ID for each client.
ClickApps allows you to create custom task IDs. What’s more? You can add custom fields in various formats, such as dates, contact info, drop-down, checkboxes, links, formulas, tags, and more.
Artificial intelligence
Generative AI is one of the most transformative technologies of this decade. You shouldn’t have to hire a large team of engineers to make it work for you.
ClickUp AI helps fast-track development plans and documentation. With a few prompts, you can generate product ideas, roadmaps, and more with expert-crafted AI tools for software teams right within ClickUp.
Summarize this article for me pleaseBoost Your Project Management the No Code Way with ClickUp
Much of our lives and our work today is tech-mediated. Even businesses we consider non-tech—like art or beauty services—use digital tools to take orders, manage operations, marketing, etc.Â
Off-the-shelf tools for project management don’t work for all purposes. They can be a bit inflexible for your project’s peculiarities. That’s where no code software development comes in!
ClickUp’s no code features empower you to boost your project management, collaboration, resource management, and product development.Â
With ClickUp’s GUI-based customization, automation, and drag-and-drop features, you can optimize your operations and boost your productivity. Try it for yourself. Sign up for ClickUp for free.
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