The Power of The Citizen Developer - Guest Post by Peter Darmon, University of Alabama at Birmingham Information Systems Program
Let’s surmise the transformation of commerce in the 21st century, and a technology dilemma facing us in the Twenty-Tens.
Computing technology has migrated from a specialized role in calculation and record keeping into an integral one in nearly all business processes. Software was once the domain of spacemen, and now you can hardly do much of anything without the processor in your pocket.
We can all attest that properly implemented apps can streamline nearly any system. And it follows that the desire for this boon in business will continue to accelerate, efficiency being synonymous with reduced costs.
But we encounter an obstacle. Deployment of business applications, in such high demand, is traditionally an alchemy belonging to Information Technology. Gurus with years of training in tools whose names draw blank stares from those outside their ecosystem.Demand for reliable, secure, easy-to-use software outstrips this specialized workforce’s capacity to produce it. This is the Skills Gap, holding many enterprises back from their potential.
Solving this problem is imperative to remaining competitive.
Enter the Citizen Developer. Functionally speaking, Citizen Developers are business people outside of IT using non traditional tools to solve business problems which previously could only be solved by IT.
It’s nothing less than a democratization of software development. Business people confronted with clumsy inefficiencies are empowered to solve their own problems. Even introduce new products.
Marketers, managers, and field workers are no longer forced navigate IT bureaucracy to request new systems. Even when granted, miscommunication may render solutions that miss the mark.
Moreover, allowing these citizen developers to take charge of solving niche problems allows IT personnel to focus their energy on complex and mission critical tasks.
It’s an increase in efficiency that breeds an increase in efficiency. A new approach to be ignored at the peril of traditional thinkers.
Below is an infographic from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Information Systems Program breaking down the economic cost of the skills gap, the poise of citizen developers to recover those costs.
Visit the University of Alabama at Birmingham Online
To read how Alpha Anywhere is solving the skills gap by empowering citizen developers to build and deploy business apps, read our new white paper on democratizing app development.
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